13 February 2023 What even is real life?!?!?

Elaine stands in front of an LC-130 on the snow runway
Journal Entry

Bye Antarctica :( My travel out of the South Pole and McMurdo Station were surprisingly smooth. I was personally hoping for delays and more time "on the ice" but the Fates weren't with me. Or maybe they were?! Travel in Antarctica is notoriously unpredictable, but not when you're trying to stay I

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22 March 2023 Back home and the latest updates

Bill's stocking waiting until February
Journal Entry

Back Home I can't believe I am back home already. Antarctica is half a world away but is now a piece of who I am. My life will forever include references to the times I had there, the lessons I was taught, and the things I learned. Standing in line at the Auckland airport I met another person

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5 February 2023 Celebrating and Waiting to Redeploy

Byron Adams accepts 2023 Golden Beaker Award
Journal Entry

Celebrating and Waiting to Redeploy On Friday we had our last expedition to Miers Valley. This trip had been rescheduled several times due to weather and that morning it did not look promising. It was the coldest we had had in several weeks and the wind was biting. To our surprise, in the Dry

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3 February 2023 Support Staff Superheroes!

Stuffed animals pretending to type at a computer
Journal Entry

Supporting Science As I reflect back on my time in Antarctica, I keep thinking of all the amazing support staff that made my entire experience so amazing. For every scientist here, there are 5 more hard-working and super helpful people making that science happen. I want to highlight some of the

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3 February 2023 Last Requests

P bottle for use in back country
Journal Entry

Last Requests We have been trying to get in all of our last requests before closing out the field season for the Wormherders. There is a process for everything. To make sure there is an orderly procession from one year to the next, everything has to be checked off. Most of the 1000-ish people in

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1 February 2023 In the Dark

Photosynthesis extraction
Journal Entry

In the Dark For the past week we have been trying to get our final samples of the summer season here in the Dry Valleys. Our last sampling expeditions have been delayed by weather so the last few days have been all in the lab looking to finish up anything we can. The team has been lightheartedly

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30 January 2023 "In town" means McMurdo

Panorama of McMurdo from Observation Hill
Journal Entry

"In town" Means McMurdo The last few days of cloudy, snowy summer weather has kept us out of the Dry Valleys and away from our last sampling duties. This means that we've had some quality time to hang out and explore the many features and facets of life in town. For most of the people involved in

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28 January 2023 What do you do all day?

Bill's daughter, Willa, looking at frog fungus
Journal Entry

What do you do all day? Google must have heard me talking about microscopes because this picture from 14 years ago came up on my phone this morning. It's from a time my daughter and I found some weird stuff growing on a frog that was frozen under the ice in our pond. It just reminded me of how

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28 January 2023 A River Runs Through it

Bill Henske along the Onyx River in Wright Valley, Antarctica
Journal Entry

A River Runs Through It We recently came back from sampling in Wright Valley which is parallel to Taylor Valley. Wright Valley is a little dryer with fewer glaciers. It does have a glacier blocking the ocean side - causing the meltwater stream to flow away from McMurdo Sound. The result is

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26 January 2023 The Walls have Ears

The floor of Beacon Valley
Journal Entry

The walls have ears Have you ever felt an unknown presence? Someone or something nearby but you just can't see them or hear them? In Beacon Valley the walls don't have ears (probably) but they are filled with organisms you can't see. That's because the sandstone of the remote Beacon Valley harbors

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