It has happened. I've lost it. I have officially lost my mind.
After I first arrived I fell in love with Antarctica, but I was certain the people who come back year after year were full on nuts. You would have to be crazy to spend months isolated in this tiny spec of pseudo civilization while working 14 hour days in what would be equivalent to a dorm-like life style. The training itself is bizarre: "Don't leave the marked trail or will you fall into a crevasse," "we want you all to make it home safe," "Here is how you use a survival bag, always have one with you..." I was constantly asking myself why I came here, and seriously re-evaluating my decision making process that would even allow me to come to this insane world.
To add to the stress of survival gear and extreme weather training, I hate the cold. Despise it. It must have been the years in Rexburg, or probably the trip to the Grand Canyon in March. Either way, I avoid bone chilling cold like my life depends on it, and it is blasted cold here. Today is 12 degrees with the windchill (there is always a windchill) and we are leaving for a hike, crazy.
I quickly adjusted to the lifestyle and the temperatures here but again had no desire to do this ever again. Like I said, these people are nuts. It's self-subjected, irrational, unnecessary strain on every aspect of your life; a brutal attack on sanity.
But I caught the bug. It must be in the water. The science here is unbelievable! There is no other place where you can study functioning soil ecosystems without plant or animal interference. Here we can see what the microbes are doing and how it affects their environment, and how the environment affects them. People come here to practice experiments for Mars. People dive into the sea to study the crazy organisms that live on the ocean floor. You can study the natural habitat free of human activity. I love it here!
I cannot believe how lucky I am to be here and be a part of the science on this weird, crazy, harsh continent. I only hope that one day I will be back.
Monday, January 28, 2013
I got worms
Antarctica from my point of view:
We counted so many worms, I started seeing them wiggling around when I would close my eyes. Unpleasant. These plots are monitored every year so we can study changes in the populations how how these populations respond to droughts, floods, changes in temperature, and changes in nutrient availability. It is completely different from my research back at home but it's really cool to look at things on a population scale, rather than molecular (I do miss my bacteria though). The science down here is so much fun and every lab is doing something completely different.
We ended up running 304 samples, some with hundreds of nematodes. I'll get the final count posted soon! For now I am hoping it will be a while before I see another worm...
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| Eudorylaimus |
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| Molting Scottnema (awesome) |
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| Tardigrade (I think?) egg |
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| Tardigrade! |
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| I counted over 100 tardigrades in one sample. That was a good day. |
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| an arachnophobe's worst enemy: the mite |
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| Geomonhystera |
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| Tardigrade |
We counted so many worms, I started seeing them wiggling around when I would close my eyes. Unpleasant. These plots are monitored every year so we can study changes in the populations how how these populations respond to droughts, floods, changes in temperature, and changes in nutrient availability. It is completely different from my research back at home but it's really cool to look at things on a population scale, rather than molecular (I do miss my bacteria though). The science down here is so much fun and every lab is doing something completely different.
We ended up running 304 samples, some with hundreds of nematodes. I'll get the final count posted soon! For now I am hoping it will be a while before I see another worm...
MY FAMILY WHEN I TELL THEM ABOUT MY RESEARCH
Tuesday, January 22, 2013
Adieu Adelie
Yesterday we were able to sample at Cape Royds, a Adelie penguin rookery. Amazing. We were looking for Panagralaimus, a nematode found in the soil at penguin rookeries. The penguins were really curious and would walk up and see what was going on. It was unbelievable. Definitely one of those, "I can't believe I'm in Antarctica," moments. Holy cow.
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| Thanks for the penguin hat, Santa! |
We also go to check out Shackleton's hut from the Nimrod Expedition. So well preserved by the cold and cared for by the New Zealanders.
What a day!
Sunday, January 20, 2013
Savvy?
This may be an American station, but the language and culture are quite foreign. There are acronyms and nicknames for almost everything.
Here are a few..
Boondoggle: a day trip disguised as work though it is clearly for sight seeing or adventure seeking.
Boomerang: to start a flight but have to turn around due to bad weather. This can be quite depressing if you've already reached the halfway mark.
Crud: gross sickness that endlessly cycles around McMurdo.
Beaker: scientist.
The Ice: Antarctica.
Freshies: fresh fruits and vegetables.
Frosty Boy: frozen yogurt machine. This machine isn't an official Frosty Boy, but acquired the nickname from the previous frozen yogurt machine.
DV: Distinguished visitors. These guys get the royal treatment.
Happy Camper: I called this snow school the other day and nobody knew what I was talking about. I guess the wormherders are the only ones who refer to it as snow school. Weird.
Kiwi: New Zealander.
Skua: There are bins around town of unwanted items people don't feel like packing home, these are accurately named after the skua birds that scavenge everything. There are some great finds if you are willing to search.
Herbie: winter hurricane.
I worry that once you are used to the quirky culture here, you become one of them...
Here are a few..
Boondoggle: a day trip disguised as work though it is clearly for sight seeing or adventure seeking.
Boomerang: to start a flight but have to turn around due to bad weather. This can be quite depressing if you've already reached the halfway mark.
Crud: gross sickness that endlessly cycles around McMurdo.
Beaker: scientist.
The Ice: Antarctica.
Freshies: fresh fruits and vegetables.
Frosty Boy: frozen yogurt machine. This machine isn't an official Frosty Boy, but acquired the nickname from the previous frozen yogurt machine.
DV: Distinguished visitors. These guys get the royal treatment.
Happy Camper: I called this snow school the other day and nobody knew what I was talking about. I guess the wormherders are the only ones who refer to it as snow school. Weird.
Kiwi: New Zealander.
Skua: There are bins around town of unwanted items people don't feel like packing home, these are accurately named after the skua birds that scavenge everything. There are some great finds if you are willing to search.
Herbie: winter hurricane.
I worry that once you are used to the quirky culture here, you become one of them...
CULTURE SHOCK WHEN I GET BACK TO NORMAL LIFE
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| http://whatshouldwecallgradschool.tumblr.com/ |
Wormherders
I am here working for the LTER (Long Term Ecological Research) Wormherders. Dr. Diana Wall (Colorado State), Dr. Byron Adams (BYU), Dr. Ross Virginia (Dartmouth), and Dr. John Barret, (Jeb, Virginia Tech) are the Principle Investigators (PI's) for the soils group in this LTER. Wormherders was a nickname given by the helo pilots.
People here love their acronyms, every building, most roads, pieces of equipment, and rooms have an acronym. One of the first days we were here we were supposed to pick up something from the BFC and I was charged with relaying this message. I just threw out random letters, I can't remember what now, and was mocked for the rest of the day. But even with my random letters, everyone knew exactly where I was talking about. So confusing. They need a pocket-size decoder that I can carry around with me!
Martijn and Matt are postdocs working for Diana, and Eric is a postoc for Jeb. These guys have the bulk of the responsibilities. Kevin and Ruth are working on the PhD's and Ashley and I are Master's students.
This is the group!
People here love their acronyms, every building, most roads, pieces of equipment, and rooms have an acronym. One of the first days we were here we were supposed to pick up something from the BFC and I was charged with relaying this message. I just threw out random letters, I can't remember what now, and was mocked for the rest of the day. But even with my random letters, everyone knew exactly where I was talking about. So confusing. They need a pocket-size decoder that I can carry around with me!
Martijn and Matt are postdocs working for Diana, and Eric is a postoc for Jeb. These guys have the bulk of the responsibilities. Kevin and Ruth are working on the PhD's and Ashley and I are Master's students.
This is the group!
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| LtoR: Ashley, Jeb, Diana, Ross, Ruth, Kevin, Matt, Me, Martijn, and Eric |
Friday, January 18, 2013
There and back again
I made it back to the field!
Due to weather delays and an overwhelming number of samples to be counted, I had a long break between my field excursions, but I made it out! We went to Lake Hoare to collect soils and water an ongoing experiment. It was a beautiful day and this site is one of the best.
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| Ashley carrying back all the empty carboys |
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| Lake Hoare |
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| Freezing cold but still a beautiful valley |
We were planning on staying the night here, there is a main hut, lab, and lots of tents, but there was a winter storm warning so we decided to come back to McMurdo. It turned out to be a good decision, if we had stayed we would have been stuck there for a few days! There are too many samples to run for that kind of nonsense.
Wormathon
Today has been pretty eventful. We started the day with nematode extractions as the Prime Minister of New Zealand toured the lab. He and his wife checked out our samples under the scope and were incredibly friendly. They had a whole posse surrounding them so the lab was pretty crowded. We have a postdoc here who is from New Zealand so he got his picture taken and was able to answer a few questions, and now has a permanent smile glued to his face. Pretty exciting! They also ate the last of the frosty boy ice cream, but I won't get into that.
A few soil samples and nematodes later, we were interviewed by a journalist following scientists on the WISSARD project. The WISSARD project is this amazing attempt to collect water samples from a glacial lake that is buried under the glacier.
We have a poster in the hallway outside our office that shows our total counts (kindly created by Kevin, Eric, and Ruth) that has sparked a competitive wormathon among the wormherders (thats us). This poster has also been getting a lot of publicity by others in the building. It has given me reason to talk to the hot boy down the hall, but it also caught the eye of that reporter looking for some extra stories in his spare time. I'm not sure if he will actually publish an article on us, but it's fun answering questions and talking about what we are doing!
A few nights ago we had the opportunity to attend a talk given by a guy who was in our class for snow school. He is a surgeon, mountaineer, and former astronaut. Currently, he is in charge of the polar medical program. As an astronaut he went to space 5 times and has been on 7 space walks. Holy cow! I knew nothing of this while we were out camping and now I'm over analyzing any stupid comments I made... His life is truly inspiring and his talk was amazing. This place has so many colorful people with great stories.
Dr. Scott Parazynski
In other news, I've counted 5 tardigrades today! These are the first I've seen since I've been here. It has been an excellent day!
A few soil samples and nematodes later, we were interviewed by a journalist following scientists on the WISSARD project. The WISSARD project is this amazing attempt to collect water samples from a glacial lake that is buried under the glacier.
We have a poster in the hallway outside our office that shows our total counts (kindly created by Kevin, Eric, and Ruth) that has sparked a competitive wormathon among the wormherders (thats us). This poster has also been getting a lot of publicity by others in the building. It has given me reason to talk to the hot boy down the hall, but it also caught the eye of that reporter looking for some extra stories in his spare time. I'm not sure if he will actually publish an article on us, but it's fun answering questions and talking about what we are doing!
A few nights ago we had the opportunity to attend a talk given by a guy who was in our class for snow school. He is a surgeon, mountaineer, and former astronaut. Currently, he is in charge of the polar medical program. As an astronaut he went to space 5 times and has been on 7 space walks. Holy cow! I knew nothing of this while we were out camping and now I'm over analyzing any stupid comments I made... His life is truly inspiring and his talk was amazing. This place has so many colorful people with great stories.
Dr. Scott Parazynski
In other news, I've counted 5 tardigrades today! These are the first I've seen since I've been here. It has been an excellent day!
Thursday, January 17, 2013
Weather
7°F
Current: Clear
Wind: N at 0 mph Humidity: 92% |
0°F
Current: Clear
Wind: N at 0 mph Humidity: 100% |
-4°F
Current: Clear
Wind: E at 5 mph Humidity: 83% |
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