Life for Researchers on This Icebreaker Is Cold and Fulfilling

_SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN

Get a behind-the-scenes look at how researchers live and work on a U.S. icebreaker making its way through the waters of West Antarctica.

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:
[CLIP: Theme music]

Rachel Feltman: Ever wondered what it’s like to travel through the Antarctic Ocean? It’s not exactly a pleasure cruise. But that doesn’t stop scientists who venture out on these rugged trips from having a good time.

For Scientific American’s Science Quickly, this is Rachel Feltman. You’re listening to part three of our Friday Fascination miniseries all about field research in Antarctica.

This week award-winning journalist Sofia Moutinho is giving us a behind-the-scenes look at life on an icebreaker. From Secret Santa gift exchanges to secret initiation rites, these scientists find plenty of ways to cope with the isolation of spending months at sea.

Alexis Floback: Okay, come on in!

We have the head. So “head” is a term used on ships to mean, like, your toilet. So we have a private bathroom in each cabin on this ship, complete with a shower, toilet and sink.

Sofia Moutinho: That’s Alexis Floback, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Southern California who studies the role of iron in the ocean. On this cruise she shares a cabin with three other female researchers. They all met and became friends onboard.

On the door of their room is a picture of the four of them smiling on deck with a huge iceberg in the background. It was the first iceberg we encountered on our long journey through West Antarctica onboard the U.S. icebreaker Nathaniel B. Palmer.

Floback: In this room we have four people and four cabinets, so we’re a bit short on space. And all of our ECW, or extreme-cold-weather gear, we’ve decided to store here, so that it’s out of the way. This will help keep us warm in the cold Antarctic.

Moutinho: The Palmer is divided into six decks accessed through a maze of stairs and hallways separated by heavy steel doors. Accommodations are humble. Everyone shares these small rooms except for the captain and lead scientists.

You find the complete episode transcription here

Check out the NEXT episode:

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.