reporter: birgit steckckelberg leads the research team at neumayer. the work done here is purely scientific. anything else would be forbidden, in accordance with the antarctic treaty that the international community agreed to in 1959. bibirgit: there are regular, unannounced inspections that take place at the stations. up to this point, there haven't been any conflicts. but considering world history, one can only hope that the intentions remain purely scientific. reporterer: one big drdraw for reresearchers atat neumayer ise emperor r penguins. the scientntists want t to exae the animals' breeding behavior in order to predict possible threats caused by climate change. the international researchers share their results with each other. marie charlott: people always talk about the antarctic family. all the conflicts that exist elsewhere in the world fall by the wayside. everyone helps each other, and people try to get along. at times, under truly inhospitable conditions. it's nice to see that in spite of all the bad news in the world, it can really can w