Dan’s Wild Wild Science Journal

That's me in the hydroponics unit at the South Pole. I was asking questions for some Huntsville Students competing in a national science competition.

A little story for you.

I’m on the board of our great science museum, SCI Quest, here in Huntsville. Just before my trip to the South Pole, I found out about a project some students were doing with help from Sci Quest. I was asked if  it might be possible to get some info or pictures of a greenhouse in Antarctica for them.

Lane Patterson operates the vegetable grow unit at Amundsen - Scott Station at the South Pole.

The students are involved in an eCybermission project on hydroponics. This is a free web based science, math,engineering and technology competition for students grade 6-9. When I saw what they were working on, I promised to try and bring back something for them.

So four weeks and 13,000 miles later, I’m walking down to eat dinner at Amundsen Scott Station at the South Pole, and guess what I see?? A hydroponics greenhouse! Dinner was delayed while I grabbed my cameras. Best of all, the operator of the unit Lane Patterson was there!

Lane calls this the vegetable growth unit and it’s not just for science. It provides fresh vegetables to the researchers and support staff wintering over at the South Pole. No planes can reach the Pole during the long polar night, and this is the only supply of fresh vegetables available.

Lane works out of the University of Arizona with the Controlled Environment Agricultural Center. They received a grant from the National Science Foundation to build and operate the unit. Lane is employed by Raytheon Polar Services the NSF civilian contractor to operate the unit.

So, take a look and see how it works , and how Lane grows things from 9,000 miles away in another desert – Arizona.

Oh, and yes, the students at Sci Quest will have this video and more.

and here it is:

The National Science Foundation's U.S. Antarctic Program (USAP) has a large center at the Christ Church airport. Clothing for those headed to "the ice" is issued there.

So what DO YOU pack when you’re headed to the very bottom of the world??

Little clothing surprisingly!

Most of my winter clothing will not suit for Antarctica and instead when I get to Christ Church, I will be outfitted with the polar clothing. I did spend 50$ on special long underwear. I will be given much heavier long johns when I get to Christchurch but this is for those “warm days’ at McMurdo.

McMurdo is actually not bad in high summer. Highs can reach near freezing. The South Pole is much different.  If it gets above -20F that is a warm day. The permanent residents consider anything above -30 a warm day!

Antarctica is a HUGE place. About the size of the Continental USA and almost entirely covered by over 2 miles of ice. It’s also completely surrounded by ocean. No other continent is situated in this way, and that ocean isolates the weather in Antarctica.

If you thought the North Pole and the South Pole had similar weather you would be very wrong. The South Pole in high summer is just a little warmer than the North Pole in Winter. The ocean and all that ice, along with an elevation of nearly 3km’s is why.

What you have to wear on the flight from Christ Church to McMurdo! Image courtesy Scientist Herman Kolanoski

So what am I taking?

Three still cameras. Two digital SLR’s and one pocket camera that shoots HD video. I’m also taking a Panasonic AVCHD camera that shoots gorgeous high definition video. The files are huge and it takes a very expensive editing software just to view them properly. So, I will have about 100 gigabytes with of special SD cards with me.

The other must haves are back up batteries for all those cameras. Chargers as well. The cold will make a battery that lasts two hours last 5 minutes. Chemical hand warmers are hopefully going to keep those batteries warm until needed.

A special bit of advice that I’m taking very seriously is to put my cameras in a plastic bag when I come inside. The cameras will be cold soaked and moisture will want to condense on the internal parts, causing havoc. I plan on making sure I do just that.

The three cameras are mine. The TV station bought the  special HD video camera for the trip. It is light weight, small and as I said, shoots incredibly good video. I bought insurance for that!

I hope to be able to post the story of my adventure with pics and video here. McMurdo has decent internet but when I am at the WAIS site or at the Pole the internet will be very poor. Much of my time will be at McMurdo so I should have frequent posts!

If you post any questions, I will gladly try and answer them and that goes for students and classes as well. I may even try and do a Skype video with a few classrooms. Email me at dansat@gmail.com if you would like to and I will try my best.

Dan

I have a pile of things that I’ve wanted to write about, but it’s been a busy time with a family illness.

That said, here are some great pieces of good Science I have run across this week. All are worth a look.

First of all a salute to the ROYAL SOCIETY by the BBC in the form of an audio visual slide show. Mouse on the pic below to see it.

The Royal Society is the oldest scientific society in the world.

Another piece of info is a reality check for those trying to portray a few stolen emails as a scandal in climate science.

Scientific consensus  is a totality of observation and evidence, and not the work of any one person or group.

Claims that these emails prove climate change theory is wrong or made up are like tearing a page from an encyclopedia set and proclaiming the entire set of volumes untrustworthy as a result!

So, for those that are still looking for loopholes – ponder this. The temperature data that the Univ. of East Anglia has used to show the rapid warming of planet Earth, has been DUPLICATED INDEPENDENTLY by NASA and scientists in Japan. You have to be pretty gullible to believe all those scientists are part of a grand conspiracy.

To put it frankly, anyone who thinks this will make an iota of difference on the science is living in a dream world.

It won’t.

From Dot Earth by Andy Revkin at the NYT

Andy Revkin of the NYT has posted a public letter regarding this subject from Dr. Ben Santer.

Santer is one of the top climate experts in the world. I had the honor to be part of a climate change seminar for Meteorologists last April with him. His papers on fingerprinting the human causes of climate change are must reads.

Another good read is by Geologist Peter Keleman at Popular Science. He does a great job of putting the issue into proper context. Thanks to Real Climate for the heads up on that. If you are not sick of it all by now then the viewpoint closest to mine on the matter is here. (especially the end)

Tim Lambert of Deltoid provided me with the best laugh all week from the climate denier Eric Raymond screaming conspiracy over the stolen emails. It all boils down to knowing what “;” means.

Amazing Ignorance.

Last, but not least, on the climate email story is an Editorial in today’s issue of NATURE. The premiere peer reviewed publication of all Science. Click the image below to read it:

A snippet regarding the claims made about the emails from the editorial:

“The stolen e-mails have prompted queries about whether Nature will investigate some of the researchers’ own papers. One e-mail talked of displaying the data using a ‘trick’ — slang for a clever (and legitimate) technique, but a word that denialists have used to accuse the researchers of fabricating their results. It is Nature’s policy to investigate such matters if there are substantive reasons for concern, but nothing we have seen so far in the e-mails qualifies.”

Last, but certainly not least, is something I have said nothing about before.

The ANTI vaccination crowd.

First of all- look up HERD Immunity.

If you’re even thinking of not having your kids or yourself vaccinated because of some of the junk science these people put out, then you are making a big and perhaps fatal mistake. This includes the MMR vaccine. There is NO scientific evidence that it causes Autism. The science is good on this. It wasn’t a few years ago perhaps, but it is now.

Before you start writing me emails about how you have an autistic child and I just don’t get it, let me assure you that I DO indeed get it.

I have a 15 year old autistic son.

Phil Plait at BAD ASTRONOMY has a touching story regarding this subject. Keep in mind that he uses the term SKEPTIC in the proper science way. Anyone doing science should be skeptical of any claim! It doesn’t mean he’s a climate change skeptic!

Later,

Dan

Tomorrow marks the first annual Carl Sagan Day. It will be held at Broward College in the Miami area of Florida. It will be celebrated by people around the world however, by simply pausing to reflect on the life of a man who brought the wonders of Science to millions.

Sagan worried a lot about scientific literacy.  To have a functioning society, where the public makes thoughtful decisions on everything from environmental policy, to the funding of research and exploration, it’s a necessity.

Mouse the image to go to the website.

Science education is not just for those who plan on studying science in college, or going into a field of research!

It’s needed for everyone.

Carl Sagan would be unhappy with the state of science literacy today. Particularly here in America, where large numbers of people believe that solid scientific foundations underpinning evolutionary biology and climate change are wrong.

Where books are published with almost laughable explanations of why these basic theories are supposedly wrong.

A public that has little or no scientific understanding, will not have the ability to recognize when they are being fed a load of political propaganda dressed up to resemble science.

I have written several times about Carl Sagan on these pages. His books and the famous TV series COSMOS are still watched and read by millions. The Pale Blue Dot is simply fabulous.

If you read just one book of his, then buy The Demon Haunted World.

After I published this post today, a viewer sent me a link to this. Feynman playing the Bongos!, Neil De Grasse Tyson, and of course Sagan.

Pause and remember Carl Sagan on Monday. He would have been 75. The world still needs him.

Later,

Dan