Until recently, easy passage across the Arctic’s frozen landscape remained the stuff of fantasy and fable. Who could afford – or risk - cutting through thousands of miles of ice to go from East to West?

But, near the Canadian port of Churchill, one of the country’s top arctic scientists, David Barber, from the University of Manitoba, is finding data that may change everything. His teams have been studying the ice in the Arctic for quite a while and have just embarked on a new project on Button Bay – just north of Churchill – which they will study for the next decade.