The Travel to Antarctica

 by: Dr. Laurie Connell

On my way and already lost a day!

It is a long trip from backwoods Maine to Sunny Antarctica.  We have already had freezes and sleet here so perhaps it isn't that big of a difference after all.

I took off from the teaming metropolis of Bangor (Bangor International Airport)  early on the morning of October 18th.
Here I am at the airport ready to go. 

My first flight was to Philadelphia with a several hour layover.  Then a flight that was a bit shorter than 6 hours “seat time” to Los Angeles.

 I arrived in the evening but it was still pretty hot and sultry.

 Next is a long flight to Auckland New Zealand- our port of entry.   That flight is over 13 hours.
Although we left in the evening of October 18th we arrived in New Zealand on the morning of October 20th.  We lost a day because we crossed the International Date line.

More to come in a future posting on our short visit to Christchurch New Zealand.  That is where we pick up our cold weather gear and catch our Air Force flight to Antarctica!

Shipping Cargo to Antarctica

Submitted by Laurie Connell

It is time to ship cargo!  Even tough we have a few months to go before we leave for Antarctica it is time for us to ship our cargo so that it will be there for us when we arrive.  This is a critical part of the planning process with many steps.  Each piece of cargo has to have a complete inventory, size (cube) and weight.  It is shipped from Maine to Port Hueneme, CA so that it can be put into the cargo stream.  We call Port Hueneme PH for short- one of the very many acronyms we use while working with the Antarctic program.  In PH each cargo crate is given a transport control number (TCN)- this is just like what companies like Fed Ex use to track their shipments. 

From PH the cargo travels to the Antarctic Gateway of Christchurch New Zealand. 

  

From there it is loaded onto military cargo planes and flown down to McMurdo Station on large pallets.

When we pack we have to be careful that we do not use any shipping “peanuts”.  These polystyrene packing materials are banned under the Antarctic Conservation act!  I prepare a detailed inventory list of each item in each crate- this one has ascent boots, extra arm coats and cameras for our Mount Erebus volcanic caves work.

Then each box gets labeled with stickers that tell the cargo handlers if they can freeze or not- as you can see all of ours are DNF- that means Do Not Freeze.   I have packed things with batteries in these crates and freezing is bad for them.

Then each crate is banded and shipped out!

Timelapse #2!

Hey there everyone. We have ourselves another shiny new timelapse video! This one is of a yeast genus called Alternaria. This particular isolate we got from Taylor Valley, Antarctica.

The video shuts off sometimes because the incubator we grew these guys in was made for plankton, and as such it shuts off the light at night (too much light can be bad for plants). Also some condensation built up on the inside of the plate making it hard to see, but rest assured, we are working on fixing these problems.

Enjoy!

By Ben Segee

Roast of Lab Equipment 4

Well it's that time again. The time when we all gather to pay tribute to the hard working equipment that makes our work possible.

Today, we would like to honor the greatest team since Root Beer and Vanilla Ice Cream. Today, we would like to thank the Biosafety Cabinet and the Fume Hood.

We will begin by talking about the more frequently used Biosafety Cabinet.

 The Biosafety Cabinet is our primary sterile area in the lab. Any time that we are working with a fungi sample directly, we do it in the Biosafety Cabinet. Before and after every use we wash it really well with... well what is basiclly the equivelent of super powerful wet naps.

As if someone said, "This is good, but can we weaponize it?"

On top of that, the hood contains a high power ultra-violet light that, when turned on, pretty much cooks any organism still alive.

The Biosafety Cabinet also contains a fan and is designed so that while the hood is open, no outside air can enter. This keeps not only the surfaces around our samples clean, but the air as well. As a result, contamination is significantly lower than if we worked out in the open.

The Biosafety Cabinet in a nutshell. 

Next we would like to thank the Fume Hood.

The Fume Hood is like a reverse Biosafety Cabinet. The Fume Hood does not work to keep contaminants out, but instead works to keep chemicals in. The design of the Fume Hood is pretty similar to the Biosafety Cabinet, but the Fume Hood has a fan that sucks outside air in, and prevents the air inside from escaping uncontroled. This is important because if we are working with hazardous chemicals, we want them as contained as possible.

Like a trap for poison!

For example, one chemical that we work with on occasion is called Beta-Mercaptoethanol, or as I like to call it Deathanol, or just Poison. The "Material Saftey Data Sheet" (MSDS sheet) says, among other things, "Combustable liquid and vapor," and, "Inhalation of high concentrations may cause central nervous system effects characterized by nausea, headache, dizziness, unconsciousness and coma...Exposure to high concentrations of mercaptans can produce unconsciousness with cyanosis (bluish discoloration of skin due to deficient oxygenation of the blood), cold extremities and rapid pulse."

Pictured: Cyanosis

As you can see, it's pretty nasty stuff that you don't want to be breathing. The Fume Hood allows us to do that. 


Biosafety Cabinet and Fume Hood, for your hard work in the name of science we are proud to present you with The Golden Mushroom Award and Haikus written in your honor. 

Biosafety has

way to many syllables

for a good haiku

Thanks to the Fume Hood

the Mercaptoethanol

can't hurt me as much

By Ben Segee

Time-lapse

All right everyone the moment has arrived!

You will find below our very first yeast growing time-lapse video! This particular isolate is called CRY HAVOC. CRY HAVOC isn't actually an antarctic yeast. It is just a regular everyday yeast, but we use it in a lot of our experiments to compare with the Antarctic yeasts. For example, in our desiccation experiment, we are desiccating CRY HAVOC to learn how yeasts that are not adapted to dry environments fare when exposed to dry environments, and then comparing that with the yeasts that are adapted to dry environments.

But I digress, here is the video. Enjoy!

By Ben Segee

Cool things to come...

Hey everyone!

Here at Connell Lab, we recently discovered that we are in possession of a time-lapse camera, which is pretty darn cool. We are putting it to use already so hopefully sometime next week, you will be able to see a time-lapse video of an Antarctic fungi growing. If it works well, we might even do a couple more.

In the meantime though, here is just a little taste of what's to come!

By Ben Segee

Upward Bound

Hey all,

Today we would like to give a very warm welcome to the smart and talented upward bound students who will be helping us out for the next few weeks.

First we have Heidi Ortiz.

Heidi is a senior from Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School. Upon finishing high school, she plans on going to the University of Miami to major in Marine Biology. She is currently doing an experiment on the effects of prolonged light exposure on Antarctic Fungi. Can't wait to see the results!

Next we have Chhayheng Chhoeu, a Senior from Lowell High School. Upon finishing high school, Chhayheng plans on going to college to major in Biology or Premed.

Chhayheng is currently helping Amber out with her study of the Red Tide algae. How awesome is that?

Once again, we here at Connell Lab would like to welcome you both! Here is a picture of a cake to celebrate the occasion.

Horray!

We look forward to working with you!

By Ben Segee