Blue Mass Group

Reality-based commentary on politics.

Imagining Darkness

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This town is largely a scientific research outpost.  But much of population is here to maintain the base and community.  There are pipefitters, electricians, carpenters, chefs, dishwashers, mechanics, power plant operators, as well as mountaineers, helicopter pilots and technicians, science laboratory staff and so on.  The scientists come through for their specific projects, often passing through on their way to a remote field camp such as the dry valleys, or on their way to the US’s South Pole station.  

Research is funded primarily by the National Science Foundation and to a lesser extent NASA, and encompasses many disciplines, including glaciology, microbiology, organismal biology, astronomy, climate change science (ice core gas records or paleooceanography).  My group is down here to conduct (meta)proteomic analyses of the phytoplankton living in the sea ice and in the Ross Sea.  This is part of a collaborative project with the Venter Institute, who are doing the DNA (cDNA actually) sequencing that is complementary and crucial for the protein work we are doing.  And our focus is really to contribute to a foundation of genomic and proteomic information so that we can begin to study fundamental questions about how these phytoplankton communities will respond to climate change and what controls their current impact on the carbon cycle.  

Here’s some recent Antarctica related news:    

  • A new study finds Antarctica is actually warming contrary to previous thinking.  Here’s some interesting metanews coverage on the history of the previous meme and how those reports fed naysayers.

  • Yet another large piece of the “permanent ” Antarctic ice shelf over the ocean is about to break away.   This time it is part of the Wilkens Shelf.  

  • A new study finds that the Emperor penguin population will be seriously impacted by climate change by 2100.

  • And China just built its third station in Antarctica, to the surprise of people around here.

  • The adjacent New Zealand Base (Scott Base) has purchased three wind turbines which McMurdo will help install and feed into their combined power grid.  Even Antarctica is beating Massachusetts to wind power. The annual cargo ship carrying them should arrive in a few hours.

    And along less newsy lines: McMurdo station has a thriving amateur arts and music scene.  Icestock (and here is one of the longest running events here.  And I showed up on the night of an Alternative Art show.  All this from people who work 6 days a week.   I’m a fan of small towns and have been asking how come MacTown (as they call it) is so artsy (and how we can get our town of Woods Hole to be even more so).

    McMurdo Antarctica

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    And if you’ve made it this far, an Antarctic rock video about penguins:

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    3. As a young journalist, it was always my desire to capture the gig as the writer/editor of McMurdo’s newspaper. Now I often fantasize about trying it in the twilight of my career. While a cruise to Antartica is undoubtedly lovely, actually living down there for an extended period must be incredible.

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      p>BTW, have you ever been down there when the marathoners come through?

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