Friday was my day to work in town while the others went to Cape Evans to continue the work under the icebergs there.  During breakfast, though, Stacy was offered some helicopter time – there had been a cancellation and now there was room in the schedule for a trip to Heald.  Of course the team took it, knowing that a little bad weather could prevent us from getting out there anytime soon.  Our work at Evans could go on even in slightly bad weather.  Folks sprang into action, quickly packing for the flight, and they were soon on their way.

I took advantage of the day in town to take care of some chores.  Checking at the post office for mail, doing laundry, dropping off the usage log for the Pisten Bully at MEC, and running over to the Scott Base store to do a little Christmas shopping.  I blew it on that last task.  I walked over expecting the store to be open, but arrived 5 minutes after they closed.  I had misread the schedule, and they weren’t going to open for another two hours.  With a few more tasks on my plate, I walked back and planned to get back to Scott Base via the shuttle after getting some more things done at the lab.  The shuttle worked out perfectly later in the day and saved me from another 4-mile round-trip walk.  Good to get the exercise, but the freezing wind made it enough of an adventure for  just one trip.

I finally started reading some of the posters describing previous research here at Crary Lab.  One of the first that I read indicated that extended Antarctic stays (10 months or longer) can cause an increase in serum thyrotropin.  This can lead to memory problems, with a mean memory decline of over 13 percent, based on some test.  Hmmm, maybe that’s my excuse for forgetting the Scott Base store hours.  I haven’t been here very long, but maybe it’s enough for the effects to show.  It would be interesting to know what other studies have been done on humans here in Antarctica (or climates where there is uninterrupted sunlight (or darkness), but I couldn’t find any other posters based on research into human behavior.

I also learned that Emperor Penguins regularly dive as deep as 500 meters and can be underwater as long as 27 minutes.  Their heartrates slow down to 6 beats per minute, which conserves oxygen.  Very impressive.  Another poster described research into microbial life at Blood Falls, where they believe water has been trapped under a glacier for roughly 5 million years.  I also learned about Antarctic Toothfish, which produce an anti-freeze glycoprotein, preventing ice crystals from growing and piercing or rupturing their blood cells.  Lots of cool research is going on around here.

An example poster from around the lab. Oh! It just happens to be for our project, oddly enough.

The lab also displays a collection of artifacts from some of the research done here:

A Crabeater Seal skull - they eat krill, not crabs, and their teeth are shaped to filter the krill

Fossilized wood and leaves show that larger plants used to grow in Antarctica long ago

The team had a very productive day out at Heald Island.  They finished the science at the current dive hole and moved the camp to the next, and final, dive hole.  It sounded like a lot of work to move the camp almost half a mile over the ice.  Since the tent had been so much work to erect, they hauled it completely assembled and tied it down at its new site.

Bob uses the table to help haul some of the camp contents

Cameo and Stacy haul the tent

Finally, as the day drew to a close, Ken, one of our very helpful volunteers, looked through the bazillions of pictures that SCINI has taken during our science dives.   He even wore one of the punishment hats while doing it so he could feel like part of the team.

Ken browses through the SCINI images for some highlights to show at our open house this weekend