MCMURDO STATION, ANTARCTICA-- Eighth grade science students at Rye Middle School in Rye, New Hampshire, got into the act in Antarctica. Under the direction of their teacher Robin Ellwood, they built a submersible robotic camera that was launched in the Ross Sea...

CAPE ROYDS, ROSS ISLAND, ANTARCTICA-- When you first come to Antarctica you are overwhelmed by the enormity, vastness and seemingly endless large structures of ice which dominate this continent (see my last dispatch). These larger scale visions persists until you begin to look closer...

CAPE ROYDS, ROSS ISLAND, ANTARCTICA-- When you first come to Antarctica you are overwhelmed with the amount of ice. Every direction you turn you are surrounded by it dominating and controlling the landscape, white against white. Beautiful and powerful...

CAPE ROYDS, ROSS ISLAND, ANTARCTICA-- First time this has happened, but I was sitting today for a spell just to watch the penguins here at Cape Royds and the only sound was that of the blood going through my ears...

CAPE ROYDS, ROSS ISLAND, ANTARCTICA-- We’ve made three trips, by helicopter, to Beaufort Island this season. Usually we can’t do this until the end of the season, because the McMurdo helos don’t fly over open water and a ship is not available until the end. It’s a 40 minute helo ride and a 6 hour boat ride. This year, though, fast ice extends out to Beaufort...

CAPE ROYDS, ROSS ISLAND, ANTARCTICA-- Most of the time while we are working with penguins in Antarctica, we are in the field at Cape Royds. We live in a tent and sleep on the ground near the breeding colony and it is a magical place for me. As far as we can see in any direction...

CAPE ROYDS, ROSS ISLAND, ANTARCTICA-- Not all of our work is in the field; some requires time in a lab and long hours working with a stereoscope. One of the questions we are trying to answer is what do the penguins eat? In previous times researchers would sacrifice a penguin and examine their stomach contents...

CAPE ROYDS, ROSS ISLAND, ANTARCTICA-- What is required? I’ve been asked many a time. Well, there is the usual sort of thing, like learning as much as possible in school about science and math, getting a good understanding about how the universe works, including the process of evolution...

CAPE ROYDS, ROSS ISLAND, ANTARCTICA-- Male Adélie Penguins were seen this year at Cape Royds on Oct 21. First a trickle then a flood, by mid November most of the nests had been built, the males had found a mate and the eggs were laid...

CAPE ROYDS, ROSS ISLAND, ANTARCTICA– The major trust of our project is to quantify the vital rates of Adélie Penguins in their changing world, as global climate change proceeds. Vital rates means such things as age of first breeding, proportion of years in which they breed...