Science intros

The 31 scientists on this expedition are organized into 5 teams led by the 6 scientists who got funding to come down here. And you know how there's one Team USA that goes to the Olympics together, but at the same time an ice skater, a skier, and a snowboarder all specialize in totally different stuff and they win or lose separately? The scientist teams are a lot like that. They'll be working in the same place alongside each other for a few months and they do similar stuff, but they collect and process samples in different ways and they're all researching different things. What unites them is a love of small invertebrates, from sea stars and brittle stars down to the bacteria that live on the skin of worms the size of specks of dust.

I'm typing this message during our third night of science introductions- we're all in our hotel rooms on Zoom learning about what other folks do. Every talk ends with a list of critters we should wake people up for. We never know what time of the day or night we'll arrive at a sampling spot and send mud grabbers down to the bottom, so people have actual written lists of rare and exciting stuff that they want to come running for if we see it. One scientist bought printed copies to hand out.

- Live ship tracker: https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/home/shipid:426075/zoom:13

- Pic: My hotel room, where I sit and type all these messages from and where I am now (until Sunday- we're supposed to get on the ship on Sunday!). You can see through my windows the parking lot of the International Antarctic Centre, a tourist attraction and office buildings where we went to pick up our parkas. Out of sight to the left is the hangar where the military plans are that take people to the Antarctic research stations on the continent, but I'm too afraid I'll violate some military law to take a picture of that.

Virginia

Questions? I'll answer if you email contact@VirginiaSchutte.com

Hotel room at Sudima Hotel @ Christchurch Airport