On the Web at http://www.asa.org December 12, 1999 Published during the austral summer at McMurdo Station, Antarctica, for the United States Antarctic Program Safety first Laying the groundwork for a new Pole station By Josh Landis The Antarctic Sun Life at the South Pole depends upon two things: a steady supply of food and fuel, and reliable shelter and equipment. A seasonal deluge of LC- 130 flights ensures the first require- ment. The second has been harder to maintain. A few years ago, the National Science Foundation appointed an external panel to review the U.S. Antarctic Program. While it declared the program scientifically and politi- cally well-established, it had serious concerns about the structures that house and protect people in Antarctica, particularly at the South Pole. It said many facilities were “far below the standards that we demand in our most basic working and living envi- Tunnel vision ronments within the U.S. ... [M]any fail Framed by the glaring light of the summer sun, miner John Wright assesses a hand-dug tunnel to meet fundamental safety criteria and carved to test digging methods. The final passageway will be 2,000 feet long and house the new construction codes and are becoming a water and waste systems for South Pole Station. Photo by Chris Rock. growing impediment to the continued See “South Pole”—Page 4 Fishing for antifreeze By Aaron Spitzer The Antarctic Sun Inside a small orange hut on the frozen surface of McMurdo Sound, a group of researchers huddled near the rim of a gaping hole in the 10-foot-thick ice. As a gas- powered winch reeled in a thin steel cable, the form of a giant fish appeared from the aquamarine depths. “This may be the largest one we’ve caught this year,” said Kevin Hoefling, peering down through the icy water. He slowed the winch and the group leaned in closer. A betting pool quickly placed the creature’s weight at around that of an average-sized man. In a few seconds the seawater sloshed and the fish’s head appeared—enormous and prehistoric, with protruding eyes and powerful jaws lined with inward-angled teeth. Lines and arches delineate the form of the new South Pole power plant. Photo by Josh Landis. See “Fish”—Page 2 Amundsen’s secret Getting wired As clean as the Living large-format tool / Page 3 / Page 7 driven snow / Page 9 / Page 10 2 December 12, 1999 The Antarctic Sun “Fish”— from Page 1 get their bearings, they quickly swam which includes the giant mawsoni— Its massive, muscular body was wrapped down and away. generate a substance called antifreeze in a whitish-gray skin of scales. Its fins Antarctic cod—and many of their glycoprotein, or AFGP. AFGP circulates in folded and unfolded like translucent smaller cousins—are the subjects of their blood and beats any ice crystals to the Japanese fans. ongoing research by the husband-and-wife punch, surrounding them, binding to their The creature was Dissostichus team of Art DeVries and Chris Cheng- sides and thus arresting crystal growth. mawsoni, known colloquially as the giant DeVries, both scientists at the University of This discovery has taken the Illinois. DeVries’ research in a range of different Art DeVries, directions. a McMurdo According to Cheng-DeVries, they’re institution himself, still studying how AFGP binds to ice—an has been traveling odd act in the molecular world. “Most to the Ice for more proteins interact with other proteins,” she than three said. “These guys interact with ice.” decades, examin- In a completely different vein, the ing the mecha- researchers are also conducting genetic nism by which studies of AFGP to help determine when Antarctic fish Antarctica began the dramatic cooling avoid freezing. trend that converted it from a mild Swimming environment to the ice continent of today. in a sea that is According to Cheng-DeVries, below 32 F, the notothenioids evolved AFGP as a response cold-blooded to that climatic shift, while non-adaptive creatures run the species died out. By calculating when constant risk of ice AFGP arose, the timing of the continental crystals forming in cold snap can be better determined. their blood. Once A third avenue of inquiry involves a single crystal the formation of AFGP in embryos. enters, others can Because the fish spawn and fertilize their nucleate around it, eggs externally, the eggs must develop precipitating a antifreeze early on, to protect them from potentially deadly their frigid surroundings. chain reaction. According to Cheng-DeVries, that Graduate student Andor Kiss prepares to dissect a 110 pound Dissostichus mystery will likely bring the research team mawsoni on a table in the old aquarium building. The fish was caught While earlier that day in a hut near the ice runway. Photo by Aaron Spitzer. subsurface back to McMurdo Sound during Winfly seawater stays next season, so they can follow the fish Antarctic cod. liquid due to its high salt content, fluids in eggs throughout their developmental A few moments after breaking the fish don’t share the same advantage. What cycle. surface, the mawsoni was wrestled off the they do have, as Art DeVries discovered As for the 110 pound mawsoni hook and laid out and measured on a long years ago, is antifreeze. hauled in on the winch, it has come to the wooden tray. Dripping with icy-cold Fish antifreeze isn’t like the anti- end of its cycle. Giving its life to science, it seawater, the fish was then hoisted onto a freeze in your car, explained Cheng- goes into a long trough called the “fish nearby scale. DeVries. It doesn’t lower the actual coffin,” in which it is transported from the It turned out to be smaller than freezing point of the fish’s blood. Instead, fishing hut back to the old aquarium at the expected. At 110 pounds it was hardly a she said, “it inhibits the preferred direction edge of McMurdo Sound. record. In past years, researchers in of growth of the ice crystals.” There, it is dissected and its blood McMurdo Sound have reeled in cod Ice crystals, she explained, are laid syringed into a collection of vials. Its topping twice that weight. out like flat hexagons. They expand when eyeballs, kidneys, liver and spleen are But the mawsoni was still the largest other hexagons interlock on their six extracted and preserved in liquid nitrogen of the five that was caught that day. The exposed sides, forming a pattern like that to await analysis. And finally, of course, others—slimmer versions of this motley on a soccer ball. from its muscular sides are carved giant monster—were all released back into the But in the supercooled waters of the white fillets, which go to the galley for ice hole, where, after taking a moment to Antarctic, fish in the family notothenioid— dinner. Just one week left to summon your muse for the Antarctic Sun’s Creative Writing Contest Two categories: Poetry (max. length 30 lines) & Fiction (max. length 500 words) Entries must have some Antarctic content. Entry deadline: December 18, 5.30 p.m. Enter via Email to [email protected], or in our office in McMurdo’s Building 155. The Antarctic Sun December 12, 1999 3 Letters to the editors Amundsen flush with success In the December 5 course. Upon reaching the edition there was a blurb in exact geographic south pole the “Cold Hard Facts” [p. 5] about water in the toilet bowl went the Coriolis Effect on draining straight down when the toilet water in the Southern Hemi- was flushed. sphere. The blurb tended to To prove his calculations play down the Coriolis effect Amundsen went past the pole on relatively small amounts of for a certain amount of distance water. in the direction of grid north Be advised that the and when he again flushed the Coriolis effect played a very toilet the Coriolis Effect important but little-known role returned but this time in a in Amundsen’s efforts to be the counterclockwise motion. first to reach the geographic When he retreated and South Pole. Since there were no repeated the process the water satellites, GPS or cell phones in again went straight down and 1911, how was Amundsen able he erected a tent on the to locate and pinpoint the pole location. In the tent Amundsen with such accuracy? left the toilet bowl and a letter Treaty violation? Temporarily impaled by a power drill, this What Amundsen did addressed to King Haakon of festive penguin was one of the holiday decorations that went up was to take a flush toilet with Norway. around McMurdo Station last week. Photo by Jeff Inglis. him. As he progressed across Prior to Scott’s arrival, the polar plateau, he would almost a month later, the toilet flush the toilet and observe the bowl and most of the tent had direction that the water took as filled with drift snow. Scott was The week in weather it exited the bowl. The closer he so demoralized by being beaten got to the pole the less he saw to the pole, he never thought to Palmer of a Coriolis effect in his daily dig out the tent or to thor- H/ 38 F flushings. oughly examine its contents. L/ 26 F South Pole While on the polar —Billy-Ace Baker H/ -26 F plateau, moving in a south- Billy-Ace Baker is an Antarctic • Min Wind Chill: 0 F ward direction, the Coriolis program veteran with a sense Max Wind: 28 mph L/ -31 F Effect in the flushing toilet of humor.