Penguins and Ice Samples Make This Research Vessel Paradice

_SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN

To unravel the effects of melting sea ice, researchers drill the frozen waters around Antarctica and receive a surprise visit from a group of penguins

Episode description:
It’s important that researchers get samples of Antarctic sea ice before melting takes the opportunity away. But fieldwork is never straightforward, and in part two of our Friday Fascination series about Antarctica, journalist Sofia Moutinho and the scientists on the Nathaniel B. Palmer take a break to enjoy some adorable Adélie penguins, the smallest penguin species in the Antarctic.

Stay tuned for next Friday’s episode, when we’ll learn what it’s like to live and work onboard an icebreaker in Antarctica.

Transcription:
Rachel Feltman: For Scientific American’s Science Quickly, this is Rachel Feltman. You’re listening to part two of our Friday Fascination miniseries all about Antarctica.

[CLIP: Theme music]

Last week we met award-winning Brazilian journalist Sofia Moutinho onboard a U.S. icebreaker called the Nathaniel B. Palmer. Today we’ll follow her as she and her fellow passengers hit the ice—literally disembarking onto one of the many ice floes that drift through the Southern Ocean. They’ll have to navigate tricky terrain and frigid temperatures to collect samples of pristine ice, which is crucial for helping scientists figure out how the world’s waterways will change as our warming climate melts this region’s glaciers and ice shelves.

But before we get into all that science—and the hard work that makes it possible—Sofia has some new friends to introduce us to.

Tara Williams: It’s bowing [laughs]!

Kouba: It’s just so much gratitude. It’s just—it’s once in a lifetime, these things. I just—oh, my God [cries louder]!

Sofia Moutinho (tape): Are you crying?

Kouba: I just—I’m absolutely crying!

Moutinho (tape): You cried, too, right?

Williams: Yes, a few times [cries and laughs at the same time]. It’s just beautiful and amazing, and who gets to see this?

Moutinho: It’s the night before Christmas Eve in 2023. The austral summer sun shines behind gray clouds. An endless, thick layer of ice surrounds the Nathaniel B. Palmer, a U.S. icebreaker. It has only been a few hours since our ship rammed into the fast ice so we could disembark. Fast ice is the technical term for this frozen seawater connected to the shoreline.

You find the complete episode transcription here

Check out the next episodes:

Ep 03: Life Onboard an Icebreaker

Ep 04: Contemplating our Climate Future in Antarctica

Science Quickly is produced by Rachel Feltman, Fonda Mwangi, Kelso Harper, Madison Goldberg and Jeff DelViscio. This episode was hosted, reported, and scripted by journalist Sofia Moutinho. The show is edited by Elah Feder, Alexa Lim, Madison Goldberg and Anaissa Ruiz Tejada, with fact-checking by Shayna Posses and Aaron Shattuck. The theme music was composed by Dominic Smith.