A Unique Opportunity

Me and Wu.
The past couple days I have been doing work in the lab to prepare for sample collecting and checking field gear to make sure it is ready to be transported out to the Dry Valleys.  Currently, temperatures are too cold in the valleys and the glaciers have not begun to ablate (melt).  There is still a lot of work to be done in McMurdo to prepare for the season, but in about a week I will ship out and prepare the gauges for the first flow of the streams.  

Today, I was given the unique opportunity to assist a film crew in an under water dive.  The world renowned under water cinematographer/photographer Norbert Wu (www.norbertwu.com) is doing a series of dives under the Ross Ice Shelf for a documentary titled Life.  I was lucky enough to assist him for one of those dives.  This documentary, Life, is being done by the BBC/Discovery Channel building on the series, Planet Earth, which many of you (like myself) fell in love with about two years ago.  Planet Earth was focused on the different processes and cycles of our planet, while Life will build upon that, and focus more on the incredible interactions of wildlife that thrive across the globe.  Watching Planet Earth, I never thought I would assist, be it a very small part, film makers in capturing such amazing footage.  The filming of the documentary has already been in progress for the past three years and is set to release in 2010.  Mr. Wu and his assistant dawned dry suits and jumped into a hole in the ice (pictured above), about 50 yards from an ice covered shore (and people call me crazy).  The thickness of the ice is about 15 to 20 feet, before they hit open ocean water.  They continued to descend to the sea floor at a depth of about 85 feet. They remained submerged for about 30 minutes.  Once on the sea floor they set up a Nikon digital camera for time lapse cinematography.  What were they shooting you ask?  The time lapse captured sea worms, sea spiders, and among other organisms, sea urchins.  Creatures of the depths, hence, LIFE!  

Antarctica is truly an amazing place to be.  Just the other day I attended a lecture titled, A Science/Art Conversation.  This lecture was a conversation between a scientist studying foramnifera (microscopic unicelluar organisms that are a key to past climates) and a Kiwi artist.  The basis of the discussion was how both, art and science, can influence each other.  The artist created works from the scientist's research being done in a unique landscape such as Antarctica.  While the scientist used the artist's works to create an experiment with a different substrate for the microscopic organisms to grow.  Fascinating!  I myself (if schedules line up) may be accompanied by an artist out in the field, who will be working with snow and ice.  I hope it happens!  I also received an email from Mr. Saulnier's science class back at Ford Middle School, with some great questions from the students.  I'm in the process of answering those questions and will post the Q&A soon.  Here is a link to some pictures that I have captured over the past couple days: Photos!  Stay tuned for more to come...