Text curated by Dr Fiorella Dell'Olio. Image by Nathan Pitt ©University of Cambridge
The Yusuf Hamied Department of Chemistry is pleased to share that Professor Chiara Giorio has been featured in the latest Chemistry World article titled "Carbon in an Ice World” by Victoria Atkinson.
The insightful article takes readers deep into Antarctica’s frozen landscape to explore what this remote region can reveal about our climate, air pollution, and changes in the Earth’s atmosphere.
Giorio explains how her research focuses on tiny chemical traces trapped in Antarctic ice. These are remnants of natural processes and pollution dating back thousands of years. They help scientists understand how the atmosphere “cleans” itself, a natural process that removes harmful gases such as methane, which contributes to global warming.
To investigate this, she studies plant-based compounds that travel through the air and eventually settle in Antarctic snow. Once preserved in the ice, they remain intact for millennia. By analysing these compounds, her team can reconstruct past atmospheric conditions and learn how the air has changed over time.
This research is especially significant, as there is still scientific uncertainty around how the atmosphere’s self-cleaning capacity has evolved. Professor Giorio’s work is helping to fill in these knowledge gaps using real-world data from the ice. As she puts it: “Antarctica is not just a passive observer in the climate system; it’s an evolving environment with feedbacks we’re still trying to map.”
Image by Siobhan Johnson
Carbon in an Ice World was published in Chemistry World on 5 July 2025.