It's the man of the hour: my researcher - Elliot Friedman. As part of preparations for my summer expedition, I visited Cornell University in Ithaca, New York to meet Elliot and Dr. Lars Angenent in person.
Now remember kids, don't touch the red button!
Now For All The Science-y Stuff
I spent two days touring the Angenent Labs, meeting the PhD students, and learning about the scope of my summer research.
The Angenent Lab is a bio safety level 2 lab which means students can work with opportunistic bacteria.
Elliott specially designed and personally fabricated soil chambers for the upcoming Barrow expedition which will be used to measure pH, temperature, and greenhouse gases, such as methane and carbon dioxide, being emitted from the soil.
The soil chambers here are actually shown upside down. These chambers will be sunk into the muddy pond soil up to the cap line of the chamber.
Elliott and I will place 27 soil chambers into 3 different ponds (9 per pond). The data points we collect during the summer will be inputted into a climate model and be used to make predictions about greenhouse gas emissions.
The soil chambers have a membrane which allow for ions to move back and forth.
While in Barrow, Elliot and I will take measurement readings from each of the 27 chambers every other day as well as take soil samples which will be shipped back to Cornell where the soil bacteria DNA will be sequenced to see how the bacteria has changed.
Science In A Box
There's a lot to prepare before a trip to the Arctic Circle!! Since we're going to be incredibly far from the nearest Best Buy and Fry's, we have to bring all the equipment we're going to need for the summer on the airplane with us - the chambers, electrodes, spare parts, cables, laptops, extreme weather clothing, and other gear.
Flip your lid!
Be sure to check out my next journal entry on my extreme packing adventure!! Find out such fun facts like; how many socks I'm bringing, do I eat Spam, and how much hand sanitizer is too much hand sanitizer?