Scientists from Masaryk University in Brno have announced that the
Czech-built Antarctic polar station on James Ross Island has been
completed. The station, called after the 19th-century Brno-based
geneticist and meteorologist Johan Gregor Mendel, will be ready to
welcome the first expedition at the start of the polar summer in
December. It is expected to host climatologists, biologists and
geologists who will study climate change and the origin of the
so-called Antarctic "oases", areas where the glacier had receded and
allowed some simple forms of life to inhabit the location.