Hi Katey,

sorry to bombard you with so many questions! Here is a list of questions my 4th period class came up with after browsing through your journals.

  1. How do the digital optical modules work? (Taka, Dylan, and Bryan)
  2. How fast does boiling water freeze? (Alex, Jenny, Hoyoon)
  3. How can you drill down so far? (Ben, Nikko, Daniel)
  4. How do they choose who goes down there? (Ian, Sean, Lauren)
  5. Are there any other nations working on similar projects in the south pole? (Drew, Chris)
  6. How often do muons pass through the detector? (Spencer, Matt, Shim)
  7. Do you guys ever adapt to the cold? If not, how do you survive it? (Zoe, Tyler, Cailee)
  8. What have neutrinos told us about the universe? (Ben, Beau, Jake)
  9. What wildlife lives down there? Have you ever seen any? (Melissa, Michelle)
  10. How much do all the clothes weigh? (Nathaniel, Guillaume, Drew)
  11. What equipment do you use to drill? (Alex, Gabrielle, Karen)
  12. What exactly do you have to wear when you're outside? (Kaitlyn, Janelle, Carly)
  13. How do you deal with the never ending sunlight? (Dylan, Bryan, Taka)
  14. For the DOMs, why does the ice have to be clear? (Nikki, Tabina)

Katey Shirey

Dear Fourth Period, are there really forty of you in one class!? wowsers. here are some answers for you all. How do the digital optical modules work? (Taka, Dylan, and Bryan)
The DOMs work like a reverse light bulb; instead of receiving electricity and emitting light, they receive light and emit an electrical signal to the computers.
How fast does boiling water freeze? (Alex, Jenny, Hoyoon)
Faster than cold water. It turns out that as the energy is removed from the hot water it changes faster than if it started as cold water. Pretty cool, huh?
How can you drill down so far? (Ben, Nikko, Daniel)
We use a heavy drill head with hot water coming out of it. As it melts through the ice using hot water it falls with gravity and keeps on drilling. The water is stored under the ice in a rod well that's actually melted down into the ice and stays liquid under there by forced circulation. The water is heated in boilers in drill camp and pumped into and out of the holes. The tube that holds the drill head is over two miles long!
How do they choose who goes down there? (Ian, Sean, Lauren)
Lots of people come down here: teachers, scientists, students, general assistants, doctors, and even firefighters. For teachers, like me and Mr. O'Hara, we applied to come down through a special teacher program named PolarTREC. PolarTREC sponsors the website that I'm writing on right now! Any teacher can apply from any state and any grades taught.
To come down as a scientist, you'd need to get a science project approved by the NSF and find funding to execute it. Lots of science projects bring down grad students and doctoral students to help out. I hear there's a long waiting list to come down.
Raytheon (a company in Colorado) hires employees to come down with specialties or just in general. They can be welders, carpenters (carps), electricians, chefs, firefighters, doctors and nurses. All of these people are paid to be here, keep the station running and help support the science going on here.
Are there any other nations working on similar projects in the south pole? (Drew, Chris)
There aren't any other similar projects here at the south pole, there are only a few similar projects in the whole world! IceCube does have several other countries working on it in collaboration: Germany, Sweden, Great Britain, Belgium, Japan and New Zealand.
How often do muons pass through the detector? (Spencer, Matt, Shim)
Pretty often, I think. Dozens a day? But it's not that often that they are high energy ones from extra-galactic sources. When that happens it's really exciting!
Do you guys ever adapt to the cold? If not, how do you survive it? (Zoe, Tyler, Cailee)
I don't think adapt is quite the right word--maybe you can get used to it after a while so that you know what to expect and can be better prepared, but it's still cold out there and if you went out unprepared, even after a long time of being here, you'd be in big trouble if you weren't dressed warmly enough.
What have neutrinos told us about the universe? (Ben, Beau, Jake)
Previously we've proved solar fusion by observing neutrinos from the sun. Neutrinos from supernovae have told us information about the death of stars. We're hoping to learn even more about black holes? gamma ray bursts? maybe even the big bang.
What wildlife lives down there? Have you ever seen any? (Melissa, Michelle)
There isn't any wildlife down here at all. None. There aren't any bugs, or birds, or even bacteria in the ice. Absolutely none at the South Pole. When I was in McMurdo, though, I saw seals, penguins, and birds named skuas. They can exist there because it's about 60 degrees warmer and there is a food source--the ocean.
How much do all the clothes weigh? (Nathaniel, Guillaume, Drew)
Oh jeez, maybe 40 lbs? I don't know, I'll have to find a scale. Mr. O'Hara might know better, he had them all on last year.
What equipment do you use to drill? (Alex, Gabrielle, Karen)
The teams of driller work in three shifts with a hot water drill and many thousands of gallons of hot water to melt through the ice. Once we get drilling this year, maybe as early as the end of next week, I should have some pictures to share with you.
What exactly do you have to wear when you're outside? (Kaitlyn, Janelle, Carly)
You guys should check out my journal from Friday the 19th about what I wear. It should clear things up for you.
How do you deal with the never ending sunlight? (Dylan, Bryan, Taka)
I don't think it's so bad, as long as I can fall asleep. It's started to seem a little like living with a really inconsiderate roommate--there's always a light on even when you try to block it out. I really don't mind, though, especially when I think of how short the days are back home in DC right now.
For the DOMs, why does the ice have to be clear? (Nikki, Tabina)
The ice has to be extremely clear so that the photons from Cherenkov radiation produced when the muons move through the ice isn't interrupted--not scattered or absorbed. We want to see that radiation clearly, so that we can gather all the information possible from it.