Good luck to every science blogger who is participating in the competition to go to the Antarctic with Quark Expeditions! And congratulations to clever Quark who, by recruiting science bloggers, may get some sciencey/environmental validation for their enterprise this way.
Now, if you wanted to blog about some science in the Antarctic, there may be some other options to get you down there. Apologies for my bias here, but I know most about the US in this case. I suspect that funding agencies in other countries may have similar options.
The US National Science Foundation has the long-running Artists and Writers Program. Although the competition for the 2010/2011 season (the season currently in the planning stages) has been suspended, the program should be online again, giving you enough time to prepare an application. Oh look, the British Antarctic Survey is getting something going as well.
The NSF has also for years been sending teachers to the Antarctic, specifically so they get to experience the environment there and get a glimpse of the science being done. The teachers then relay that to their students via e-mails and blogs. The teachers deploy as part of a science group, complete with hands-on (i.e. science field work) experience.
There is a similar program for the Arctic, PolarTREC, funded through ARCUS, the Arctic Research Consortium of the US. Of course you have to be a science teacher for both of these programs, but I suspect this may apply to some science bloggers. If it doesn’t, let your teacher friends know, so they can get the good stuff back to the kids in their class rooms!
And here’s an insider tip: you can find funded PIs on the various national Antarctic programs’ websites. Write to them; they may have a spare bunk for you if you convince them that you’re really good and can help them fulfill the ‘outreach component’ of their grants.
Finally, just bear in mind that tourism in the Arctic and Antarctic has absolutely exploded in recent years, with the environmental impact that has. I also found some interesting summaries on the Arctic Economics blog.
What’s the environmental impact of all these bloggers and artists and writers going polar? ;-)
snerk
@Jenny: of course there’s an environmental impact of everyone going to these fragile environments. Doing science there has an environmental impact, and there is much that can be done to reduce that impact – for example, switching permanent field camps to solar power rather than using fossil fuels, treating human waste, etc. etc.
The idea with sending artists, writers and teachers there is to bring some of the beauty and excitement of the polar environments back home – so that everyone who doesn’t get to go can still share in the experience, and so that people get more knowledgeable about the poles. (You can’t imagine how many people, when you talk about the Antarctic, start with ‘yeah, I bet it’s really cold up there’).
Of course I absolutely understand the desire to go – hell, I had it and still do! I never thought I would be able to go, but I got lucky!
I was just being silly, Steffi – of course I think it’s wonderful. Not sure, actually, that I have the urge to go myself. I have cold feet in bed even in the middle of summer.
You’re touching on The Issue though – why should some people get to go and not others? I started debating that a little a while ago.
I’m with you on the cold feet, actually. My hands also get ridiculously cold really quickly. So my only hope is super hardcore cold weather gear!!
Funnily enough, I added this link to Friend Feed science online room the other day – graduate trainee schemes in Antactica.
Antarctica, sorry.
With a ridge of high pressure parked over south/central Texas, causing triple-digit temperatures and exacerbating the extreme drought conditions, I find the thought of traveling to a cold place very appealing right now. The Artist and Writer program(me)s sound wonderful, but I imagine that the competition is pretty fierce, and not within reach of an amateur doodler and dauber like myself.
Not that I could ever get a month off of work anyway. A sabbatical isn’t an option either; such academic perks have gone the way of the passenger pigeon and the Irish elk at many US universities. Extinct. So I genuinely appreciate the vicarious experience through reading your posts, Steffi.
So I genuinely appreciate the vicarious experience through reading your posts
I promise to keep up the Antarctic topics, Kristi – but there will be some about a clueless biologist finding herself between a bunch of physicists in the near future, too :)
but there will be some about a clueless biologist finding herself between a bunch of physicists in the near future
I look forward to reading them – to be honest, I rather dislike reading posts by bloggers who are absolutely perfect, always the hero, and extraordinarily knowledgeable and expert in every area. Difficult for a fallible mere mortal to relate to that. ;-)
Well, I look forward to being clueless – what a perfect excuse to ask all kinds of questions!
Interesting links from the UNEP and the Arctic Economics blog, Steffi. A number of my friends and colleagues have gone on cruises to Alaska or Antarctica recently (I call them “cruises” rather than “expeditions”, because the former word is closer to the truth). I must admit that I’m envious, and that I’d love to have a few weeks to explore polar environments and ecosystems, relax, read, and alter a book or two (e.g. a battered copy of Heart of the Antarctic or The Worst Journey in the World). Honestly, though, I could alter one of those books while working rahht cheer, as they say in Texas.
Speaking of which, I need to venture out into a harsh environment, before it gets even harsher ….
The cruise/expedition thing is kind of funny, actually: personally, I would never even refer to research ‘expeditions’ as such, always as cruises – to me, an expedition is something where you risk life and limb, and (unless you are utterly stupid or very unlucky) that just isn’t likely anymore on research trips these days. Actually, it may be more likely that something happens on a tourist trip, with certain tour operators having a somewhat more colorful track record than others…