Dan’s Adventures in Antarctica: 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!