Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Happy Halloween for real! WOW! Today was an incredible day. We ended up not doing lab work, however, I got invited to help out with a seal physiology team (B-232). It was a beautiful day, and we started working shortly after breakfast. Last January, this team attached data loggers to the seals backs and heads. They recorded data for almost a year and every time the seals were out of the water, the data loggers transmitted their information via satellite. Here is Kim searching for one of their seals this morning. She was listening for a signal that the transmitter would send out on a frequency specific to that transmitter.

We couldn't get a very good read on the signal she was trying to locate, so then it was off to just look at every seal that we could and try to find the one that had the transmitter on it! Here is all of B-232 riding toward Mt. Erebus.

Here is one of the seals that I checked. No luck with this one.

We stopped to converse for a second, and then it was off to look some more!

Here is me on my snowmobile :)

We came across our friends Darren and Jess (from B-009) who were busy tagging Weddell seal pups. Here is Darren as he is getting ready to tag another seal.

Darren and Jess then demonstrated for me how they place a flipper tag on each of the seals flippers. They need to tag and weigh every seal that is born in the entire area. Just yesterday they did over 90 seals and they will be working through the middle of December! Here is one big seal that I walked by on my way to watch a seal get tagged and weighted. 

And here is the little pup they tagged with it's mother. Isn't it just adorable!? Just in case you are wondering, the red and brown stains on the ice are from blood and poop. The seals give birth on the ice and usually don't move very far from when they have given birth for a while. Even for several days or weeks, you might find the same mama and her pup in the same spot. So in case you were wondering, that is why the snow doesn't look its pristine white and brilliant blue all the time. Also, it does stink a little bit because there are so many seals all doing the same thing in very close quarters. 

Darren and Jess also helped us find the seal we were looking for! Here is the crew as they prepared to re-acquire their data logger.

After they were done, I took some really cool pictures of the pressure ridges. As the ice moves, it pushes up on itself (kind of like how an earth quake happens with the tectonic plates pushing on each other). It takes on some really beautiful forms. 

Here you can see a crack and at the end of it, a hole. The seals can keep these holes open with their teeth all winter so they can breathe and climb out of the ocean when they want to. 

Then I found a large adult seal sunning itself directly in front of Mt. Erebus. It made for a great picture...and I sure was happy!

But the part that made today just incredible was at the very end. There were a few mama seals with their pups near by where the team was working. I was able to get some incredible shots of this baby seal pup. It was so cute! It was sleeping when I first approached it, then it started stretching out as it woke up. Once it saw me, it was very interested in me and really didn't want to take its eyes off of me. Mama didn't seem to mind at all...which was good for me considering female seals can weigh over 1,200 pounds! 

As we got ready to leave, I took a little more time to take it all in and realize how lucky I am to be down here! It really was an incredible day!

Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Well, today was another day in the lab but I figured that you were tired of see old pictures so I really tried my hardest to find some new and interesting stuff. I have realized that keeping this blog and making sure that I have a post about every day helps me to remember how lucky I am to be down here. And while this is my second season so things aren't as new for me, there are a ton of people who will will never make it down here so I try to keep that mindset every day. So with that long intro, here is what happened on Tuesday!

First thing I noticed when I went to breakfast today was a sea of bright yellow jackets and pants. You can always tell when the Australian research teams are coming through McMurdo because their gear is so bright, you need to wear sunglasses inside!

The next interesting thing that I saw was a metal troll guarding the foot bridge from the galley to the Crary science building. I saw it last year and thought it was so funny! It must have been an art project done by someone very talented who was really bored during a winter season!

On the same foot bridge, there is a sun dial that works...sometimes!

Next, I wanted to show you a centrifuge that we use during part of our experiment. We need to spin our samples down to isolate the cells from the rest of the extracellular tissue. However, this has to be done at -2 C so that the cells are "happy." To do this, we have to chill the centrifuge before we use it. Here is one part of it hanging out in a refrigerator :) and then me loading it and securing it down.

Here are 1/2 of the tubes that I used for my experiment this day!

And now for the best part of my day...MAIL!!! I got three letters (Mom, Grandma, and my cousin Fermeen) and a HUGE care package from Sarah! I was definitely feeling the love!!! Thank you all so so so much!

The contents of my care package :)

Later (after I worked out), there was a surprise birthday party for my roommate, Ross. His team is working on how bromine leaves the ocean and gets into the atmosphere and causes ozone depletion. They collect blowing snow in baskets. One of their sites is right next to an ice berg. So naturally, we got to have some ice from the ice berg :) The coolest part about this ice is that there are gas bubbles frozen in them and they crackle like Rice Crispies when the ice melts in your drink! Here is Ross with his!

And me with mine!

Finally, since there are no more sunsets...this is what it looks like at 10 pm! What an awesome day it was!

Monday, October 29, 2012

Well, today was another day of lab work, so there aren't very many pictures from today. However, I do have a couple of really great pictures of a seal that came up on the ice really close to where we were fishing last week. And also a short little video. In the video, you can hear it breathing. Seals can dive to almost 1000 meters and can be under water for up to 45 minutes! Before they dive, to prevent themselves from getting the "bends" like human scuba divers, they take a lot of deep breaths. Then right before they dive, they exhale all of their air out of their lungs to prevent them from being damaged/collapsing from the pressure of the deep ocean.

You might notice a little blood on the seal's chest. That is from it climbing out of the ice. They have to open holes in the ice using their teeth and the edges of their holes are not very smooth. Sometimes they get cut and you it is not uncommon to see a seal a little bloody. However, they don't seem to mind much at all. You should also be able to hear the seal breathing out in the video. The wind was blowing quite a bit so you will have to watch the seal's nostrils open and close and listen for the sound of it exhaling. I hope you enjoy, I sure did!

Sunday, October 28, 2012

Well, even though we were up really late last night, we still were able to get out of bed early to start our experiments. SCIENCE NEVER SLEEPS! Brad and I started two experiments simultaneously early in the morning while Marissa selflessly volunteered to take all of the afternoon, evening and night time points. While tubes floating in water are exciting as a scientist, they are not very exciting to look at in pictures. So I decided to post some non-science related pictures today.

It was an absolutely beautiful day today and I took this panoramic shot from the Science Support Center. If you look really close, on the left side of the third building from the left, you can see Mt. Discovery. I will post better pictures of it soon.

This next picture is something that makes me laugh every time that I see it. It is a Pisten Bully with a slab of wood that says "Student Driver" on the back. I remember driving this one last year during my PB training. It looks normal here, but I can just imagine the look on people's faces if you were driving this during your driver's education class back home!

This vehicle looks a little more "normal", however, take a look at the tracks instead of wheels! These would be amazing for places like North Dakota and Minnesota in the winter!

Finally, every Sunday (and Wednesday), one science group from McMurdo gives a short lecture about their project to help people know what kinds of things are going on down here. My roommate and his advisor gave their talk about bromine and how it leaves the ocean and goes up into the atmosphere and leads to ozone depletion. It was a packed house! And while it wasn't an exciting day as far as pictures go, it was still a great day.

Saturday, October 27, 2012

HALLOWEEN! Well, not technically on the right day, but since everyone here at McMurdo has to work from 7:30 am - 5:30 pm, Monday -  Saturday...the Halloween party needs to fall on a Saturday so that people can stay up late and have fun! There are some very creative people on station and I saw some great costumes. This year, I went to gear issue and checked out a Winnie the Pooh costume. It was so hot to wear inside, but so funny!

My friend, Jason, had one of my most favorite costumes of the night... he was a "Binder full of women!" 

My friend, Darren, was Ron Swanson from the TV show, Parks and Rec. I thought he looked pretty spot on!

Next we have "The Dark Chicken." Andrew said it was like "The Dark Knight...except a chicken!" He kept having to blow up the latex glove on his head to keep it inflated. It was hilarious!

And of course, it couldn't be Halloween without a sighting of Elvis drinking a Red Bull!

We all had an awesome time!