Russian scientists have grown watermelons in the coldest place on Earth

By Jennifer Nalewicki published 1 day ago

Scientists in Antarctica did the unimaginable: They grew a bounty of watermelons while living on the ice-cold continent.



A scientist holds one of the watermelons outside the station's greenhouse. (Image credit: Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute (AARI))


Scientists have successfully grown watermelons in an unlikely place: Antarctica.

The agricultural feat was part of an experiment at Vostok Station, a year-round Russian research station located at the Pole of Cold, so named because it's classified as the coldest place on Earth, where recorded temperatures once reached a frigid minus 128.6 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 89.2 degrees Celsius).

Watermelons arose in what is now Sudan more than 4,300 years ago and show up in the region's ancient artwork, including at an Egyptian tomb in Saqqara. In other words, the berry evolved far away from the frigid environment of Antarctica.

To make Vostok Station's greenhouse more hospitable to watermelons, researchers from the Russian Antarctic Expedition of the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute (AARI), alongside colleagues from the Agrophysical Research Institute and the Institute of Biomedical Problems of the Russian Academy of Sciences, created an oasis where they could increase the air temperature and humidity to conditions that were favorable to the juicy fruit.

More:
https://www.livescience.com/planet-earth/antarctica/russian-scientists-have-grown-watermelons-in-the-coldest-place-on-earth