As an Arctic scientist I am privileged to be able to explore the coldest parts of our planet, making observations and measurements and helping others to understand how these areas function by writing papers and giving talks, lectures and writing for magazines and newspapers. But to truly understand an environment, we must also explore … Continue reading Ice Alive: An audiovisual exploration of the Greenland Ice Sheet
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Managing & Publishing Research Code
Several journals now request data and/or code to be made openly available in a permanent repository accessible via a digital object identifier (doi), which is - in my opinion - generally a really good thing. However, there are associated challenges. First, because the expectation that code and data are made openly available is quite new … Continue reading Managing & Publishing Research Code
Smartphone Spectrometry
The ubiquitous smartphone contains millions of times more computing power than was used to send the Apollo spacecraft to the moon. Increasingly, scientists are repurposing some of that processing power to create low-cost, convenient scientific instruments. In doing so, these measurements are edging closer to being feasible for citizen scientists and under-funded professionals, democratizing robust … Continue reading Smartphone Spectrometry
Ice Caving Expedition: New articles
Here are some links to magazine articles from the past month featuring write-ups from our 2017 ice-caving expedition (mostly in Italian) The Purist The Purist 2 Press Reader El pais More on this expedition soon!
La Recherche Article: The microbes accelerating glacier melting
I recently published an article in French pop-sci magazine La Recherche about the wondrous microbial ecosystems on glaciers and ice sheets (here for French speakers). For those English speakers who do not subscribe to la Recherche, here is a translation. Also, I strongly recommend the excellent translator who worked on this article with me - … Continue reading La Recherche Article: The microbes accelerating glacier melting
Pitching Tents on Ice
In 2017 I slept in various ice-camps in Greenland in spring, summer and autumn. Living on ice requires some specialist techniques different to camping on dry land, and they vary depending on the season. In summer, the main problem is the melting surface. A tent pitched directly on the ice surface will descend into a … Continue reading Pitching Tents on Ice
Lenovo T470p Ubuntu 16.04 Install notes
Here's some notes on installing Ubuntu alongside Windows on a fresh Lenovo t470p with Windows 10 preinstalled. It took a bit of trial and error for me so hopefully these notes will help someone trying to do the same. 1.Download Ubuntu ISO The Ubuntu ISO image for your system architecture is available here: https://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop. Download … Continue reading Lenovo T470p Ubuntu 16.04 Install notes
Q&A: St Laurence Jr School, Ramsgate
The Year 6 Students at St Laurence Junior School in Ramsgate are lucky enough to be studying "Extreme Earth", so I visited to talk about Earth's extreme cold. Two of the students wrote a report about it here. We talked about different types of ice (ice sheets, glaciers and sea ice), climate change and how/why … Continue reading Q&A: St Laurence Jr School, Ramsgate
Ice caving adventure mentioned in The Guardian
Our recent ice caving expedition to the Greenland Ice Sheet was featured briefly in The Guardian this week. More info on this trip coming soon! https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/oct/22/the-eco-guide-to-the-new-mindful-activism
Greenland Aurora
Camping on the ice sheet in September/October was a new experience - I'd never seen darkness on the ice before! The lack of light pollution and cloud-free skies made for a truly spectacular display of the Northern Lights. It was -25C and 35 knot winds pretty much constantly, so it was a constant battle between … Continue reading Greenland Aurora
To The Poles 