QUOTES

Research in High Place

Scientists have found a unique way of carrying out research in high or inaccessible places – by usingan inflatable raft which is transferred from one study site to the next by a huge, colourful airship. It was first tested in1989 and is now used widely. The raft looks like a gigantic spider web. It has six ribs, which are inflated rubber strips connected by netting, with a small hexagonal raft at the central point.  The whole workspace covers more than 600 square metres, and the raft can hold up to ten scientists at a time.  Its design was evolved by a need for scientists to access the tops of trees.  Ropes and climbing towers had all been used previously but with limited success.  A solution to this was to build a raft light enough to settle safely on treetops and then to move it from place to place by air.  There are special entrances into the raft. Researchers are able to reach these from the ground using a harness.  It can take 30 minutes for the newcomer to get up to the raft.  In practice, scientists usually climb up onto the raft just before dark and sleep there in order to be able to start the next day's work without the delay of a trek from camp and the ascent to the raft. Everyone wears a safety line at all times on the raft.  A hunting horn is sounded to signal the raft's location for scientists joining it, and the same procedure is used to guide the arrival of the airship, which will move the raft to another position on another treetop.A French team named each of the raft's ribs after a famous street in Paris and named the entrances after metro stations. The central hexagon is called the Arc de Triomphe! These names help people locate specific points on the raft – for example, personnel joining the raft from the ground or people delivering supplies from the air. Sleeping and working on the raft is like sailing, as it continuously sways with the movement of the canopy of trees beneath.