Guest Work

Antarctic report – stuck!

Guest Author • Feb 02, 2012

• Antarctica,
• Climate,
• Craig Stevens,
• ice melt,
• K132,
• NIWA

Despite being stuck on base due to weather for what is now the fourth day we feel incredibly lucky.  The station went from being the Caribbean of the South (or so the locals say) to blowing snow and dare I say it — a little bit cold. Really, we are in Antarctica.  An onshore wind picked up and built … Read More

Antarctic report – a dusty birthday

Guest Author • Jan 30, 2012

• Antarctica,
• Climate,
• Craig Stevens,
• drilling,
• ice,
• ice melt,
• K132,
• NIWA

by Dr Craig Stevens, Physical Oceanographer at the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) The weather was too challenging for us to get to our field site for a few days which was frustrating as we were all set to go. On the plus side it’s not often I get to celebrate a birthday in Antarctica – … Read More

Antarctic report – drilling the hydro holes

Guest Author • Jan 26, 2012

• Antarctica,
• Craig Stevens,
• K132,
• NIWA,
• sea ice

by Dr Craig Stevens, Physical Oceanographer at the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) We got the all-clear for heading out to the site in the morning so we could set up our sea ice camp site. It was a stunning day and we had all day to drill a hole, set up the … Read More

Antarctic report – breaking the ice

Guest Author • Jan 25, 2012

• Antarctica,
• Craig Stevens,
• drilling,
• ice,
• K132,
• NIWA

by Dr Craig Stevens, Physical Oceanographer at the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) We completed our first helicopter survey of the field location this morning. It was around a 30 minute flight south of the Station. In that time we stopped off for some brief tourism at Inexpressible Island where a number of Scott’s team were … Read More

Antarctic report – the Italian connection

Guest Author • Jan 24, 2012

• Antarctica,
• climate change,
• Craig Stevens,
• ice,
• ice melt,
• K132,
• NIWA

by Dr Craig Stevens, Physical Oceanographer at the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) Right on schedule we flew to the Mario Zuchelli Station in Terra Nova Bay run by the Italian Antarctic Programme. It is comparable in size to Scott Base, but as it is located a bit further north it is called the Caribbean of Antarctica … Read More

Antarctic report – hurry up and wait

Guest Author • Jan 23, 2012

• Antarctica,
• Craig Stevens,
• ice,
• K132,
• NIWA

by Dr Craig Stevens, Physical Oceanographer at the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) The flight up to Mario Zuchelli Station in Terra Nova Bay was brought forward by two days so we had to pack early. Now it’s been dropped back a day due to aircraft commitments for weather balloon experiment recovery. This is all OK … Read More

Antarctic report – a walk on the ice

Guest Author • Jan 17, 2012

• Antarctica,
• Craig Stevens,
• ice melt,
• K132,
• NIWA

by Dr Craig Stevens, NIWA The first few days of any work down here are taken up with preparations, training, meetings and checklists. This seems a chore but is pretty important for keeping experiments running and having as few surprises as possible. Then the next task was to finalize our freight and make last minute decisions on what to take … Read More

Antarctic report – measuring the melt

Guest Author • Jan 16, 2012

• Antarctica,
• Craig Stevens,
• ice melt,
• K132,
• NIWA

by Dr Craig Stevens, Physical Oceanographer at the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) This is a new blog series describing the day-to-day work for an experiment looking at a coastal ocean flow in Antarctica. Unlike most oceanography the work is conducted from camps on sea ice. This is the frozen skin of the ocean perhaps a few … Read More

Is thorium energy's silver bullet?

Guest Author • Dec 19, 2011

• energy,
• thorium

By George Dracoulis, Professor, Department of Nuclear Physics at Australian National University. You have probably heard at least a little about thorium. There are certainly advocates out there who strongly believe it could help solve the world’s energy problems. The idea is that thorium-based nuclear energy (it is nuclear) would … Read More

The race to create the bionic eye

Guest Author • Dec 12, 2011

• bionic eye,
• eye sight,
• Science,
• vision

by Anthony Hall, Associate Professor, Monash University The path to development of the bionic eye is blindingly clear but progress is slow. There’s been an explosion of research into retinal and brain-based bionic eyes and the race to develop one has started to generate effective and commercially lucrative devices. Blindness affects about 50,000 Australians, the majority of whom … Read More