Frozen Balloons: Aeronautic Heroism and Scientific Knowledge Production

In the 2019 film Aeronauts, directed by Tom Harper, ice and snow function as poetic storytelling tools, strategies of emotionalisation and, above all, key elements of meteorological research. The biopic of pioneering meteorologist James Glashier includes a modern fictional heroine, aeronaut Amelia Wren, who highlights the ignorance of ice research and its history. In doing so, the film draws attention to the gaps in understanding, researching and communicating environmental conditions. Contrasting science and show business, the film draws attention to humans’ entanglement with nature’s visible and invisible forces. This chapter explores the role of ice as an element within, and evidence of, scientific knowledge production. It explores how ice is used in popular culture to challenge our understanding of science, to communicate environmental knowledge and to question our relationship with nature in times of climate change.