Setting up a blog for Antarctica

I am going to write a blog about my trip to Antarctica. I'm taking a polar biology course at McMurdo Station. You can learn more about the course on this website. The goal of the course is to introduce young scientists to doing field work in Antarctica, so we will know about the marine life and logistics and can write grant proposals to do more research there when we grow up. I'll learn about physiology, biomechanics, and ecology of marine organisms and will do a group project on something related to biomechanics. There are lots of worms in Antarctica, but I'm not sure whether the class will have the equipment to collect worms. But there are cool pteropods, which are snails that have reduced or no shells and a foot modified into flapping wings that they use to swim through the water, that we might study if we can find them. The cold water in Antarctica has much higher oxygen concentrations and higher viscosity than temperate water. Some deep-sea fish have less hemoglobin in their blood because they can get oxygen easily, and moving through more viscous water is different mechanically. Marine organisms also have physiological adaptations to cold temperatures, which affects enzyme activities.

Here are some pictures of Antarctic marine life.

On Jan. 1, I fly to Christchurch, New Zealand, where we get outfitted with our Antarctic Program attire (down coats, boots, etc.), which we are required to wear on the plane and any time we leave McMurdo Station. I think we fly back to Christchurch on Feb. 2. I got a new camera for the trip and will be taking lots of pictures. I think internet is slow, but I'll upload some on this blog.

I'm not sure how busy I'll be and how often I'll end up posting, but check occasionally if you're interested or let me know if you want to get email updates when I post a new entry and I'll add you to my notification list.