Science and Crary labs



A beautiful, balmy day.  
Current Conditions:  Con 3, Temp 1°F (warm!)  Calm.  Unrestricted visibility.  Population 298
The purpose of McMurdo Station is to do science. My job--and that of 95% of the people currently on site--is purely to support the conduct of science.   The scientists, with a couple exceptions, have not yet arrived.  They and their post-docs and students will start to rotate through in one- to five-month blocks, beginning in October.  A number of current staff, from janitors to secretaries, were once NSF-funded Antarctic scientists who became addicted to the McMurdo life.  They would rather mop floors in Antarctica then write NSF grants in Nebraska.  It's a life philosophy that I completely understand!

I mentioned at the last blog that scientists at the South Pole do mainly Astrophysics and physics.  At McMurdo, the major projects fall into a number of broad areas:  Ecology and Global warming (a big area of research); Organisms (Macro and Micro) and Ecosystems; Glaciology; and Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences.   McMurdo is also home to the Long Duration Balloon Facility, run by NASA.  Hopefully, I'll have a full blog on that when they launch later in the season. 

Every Wednesday, one of the scientists gives a scientific lecture and every Sunday, another will give a more popular lecture on their research.   All personnel are invited.  Every week, the A.P. Crary Science and Engineering Center, otherwise known as Crary Lab, has a tour.  Dean and I went during a blowing storm on Sunday.  Here are some highlights:

To watch undersea life live from Antarctica, go to https://moo-antarctica.net/live
Unfortunately, the program will be dismantled in one month (the PI's funding ran out).

First, those of you who are interested can watch the undersea life in Antarctica, LIVE (see above).  Mt. Erebus also used to have a webcam--we watched some saved video--but, sadly, it's been dismantled. Although volcanology is not a huge area of ongoing research down here, we got to handle some "Erebus crystals" (anorthoclase feldspar), produced by only two volcanoes on earth (Mt. Kenya is the other).

Erebus crystal
We then moved on to the touch tank in the ocean biology section.  We met one of the few scientist here, Amy Moran, from University of Hawaii (go figure) who is studying sea spiders.  These organisms, which are distantly related to land spiders, are common around the world but typically are smaller than a centimeter in diameter.  In Antarctica, they've been known to grow to over two feet in width.  The reasons for polar gigantism are unclear and something Dr. Moran studies.  It may relate to the cold (larger animals have more efficient metabolism needed for the cold), the high oxygen content of the water, or reduced predation in polar waters.  One interesting factoid is that, although nothing eats sea spiders, many creatures love sea spider eggs.  After expulsion by the female, the eggs are carried and tended by the male.  Egg-loving predators flip the protesting spider over, eat the eggs and leave the dad behind in mourning.  It's a sad tale.  I asked Aaron, the PhD student, what they taste like. He said "no one knows".  Now that seems a good area for research.

Counterclockwise from top left:  Antarctic sea spider, giant isopod (another example of polar gigantism), Antarctic sea slug, Rock cod and sea stars, Brittle star and, my favorite, the sea lemon (a mollusk)

The last thing we saw, which I forgot to photograph, was a metabolic tank being prepared for measuring oxygen consumption of Weddell seals.  They drag this huge box out to the ice and lure a young Weddell seal inside.  There he sits for a few hours while they study him. Then, out he goes, back to his family, only to be grabbed again a few months later.  As a claustrophobe, I'm hoping they at least show some nice seal videos while he's inside and have a buffet with some fish.  But probably not.
The ocean biology lab.  The sinks on the left contain young sea spiders. 
On the right is an experiment studying the effects of increased acidity and rising temperature on Antarctic fish.




Comments

Lauren said…
Did you hold that giant isopod? That thing is really frightening to look at; I can't imagine what it must be like to hold it! Ick!
September 25, 2019 at 4:34 PM
Jeffrey Parsonnet said…
How does one lure a young Waddell seal into a box?
September 26, 2019 at 12:16 PM
Lori Nelson said…
The sea slug looks like dim sum to me, but I haven’t eaten lunch yet . . .
September 26, 2019 at 2:07 PM
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