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"Trip, trap, trip, trap!" went the bridge. "Who's that tripping over my bridge?" roared the troll. So goes the Norwegian tale of the Three Billy Goats Gruff according to the revised translation by D.L. Ashliman. My daughter Eliza and I play a game when we are hiking and cross bridges; I am the troll

Three More Hours of Flying Running on only a few hours of sleep, we again boarded an LC-130, this time en route to South Pole. I could feel the excitement radiating from everyone on board. Only three hours stood between us and The Pole! This flight was much more exciting than the first as we were

What have I been doing? So far I have been pretty busy. The CosRay building is being decommissioned. It is fairly far away from the station and is difficut to maintain so they are shutting it down. The placement of the CosRay building wasn't an accident though. McMurdo Station used to have a nuclear

Getting to F6 Camp Today four of the team members were at F6 Camp on the south side of Lake Fryxell in Taylor Valley. Travelling to F6 Camp meant another stunning helicopter ride. This time we flew over a large iceberg that had previously broken off of the ice shelf and subsequently froze into the

The Anticipation I barely slept last night in anticipation of my on-ice day today. I can’t believe it’s finally here. I’ve been preparing to go to Antarctica for a little over a year now and it always seemed so far away. But last night it really hit me. It’s here. It’s happening. My day started

This is a picture of the folks I'm working with on the CosRay Neutron Monitors at McMurdo Station, Antarctica. I don't know how to put them in order so I'll just introduce them from left to right. On the far left is Samantha Pedek. She is an undergraduate physics major at the University of Wisconsin

Species Diversity So far in our samples we have seen three different species of tardigrades: Acutuncus spp. Macrobiotus spp. and Milnesium spp. Tardigrades are much less abundant in the dry valley soil ecosystems than nematodes. For the samples we collected in Miers Valley we found thousands

Ok remember what we are hunting for cosmic rays. For more on cosmic rays click here. But the short story is that cosmic rays are basically charged particles from outer space. Specifically we are

Clothing Distribution Center (CDC) At 9:00 this morning we arrived at the Clothing Distribution Center, also known as the CDC… just very different from the Center for Disease Control “CDC” you’re used to. First they checked my computer for antivirus software, next I talked to the nurse to make

McMurdo Marathon Today was the annual McMurdo marathon and 1/2 marathon. The extreme location inspires a decidedly relaxed atmosphere for the race. Racers can bicycle, ski or run the track out on the Ross Ice Shelf. The historic route has been an out and back run to Pegasus Field which is one of