SCIENCE AND CULTURE
SCIENCE AND CULTURE
Science icescapes Jessica Marshall Science Writer
Scientists will go to the ends of the earth for data. They will drop themselves on a featureless ice sheet to measure a temperature or float down a mosquito-infested river for a few tablespoons of water. Seattle-based photographer Chris Linder follows them and uses his camera to bring science’s epic voyages to the public eye. Although the landscapes of Antarctica or Iceland are striking and spectacular, Linder says “beauty shots” are only part of the story. “I’m trying to make the process of science
come alive,” he says. “It’s not just the result, but it’s the how.” Linder recalls his trip with a team of scientists to Greenland: “There is no campground on the ice sheet. There is nothing— just a sheet of ice 1,000 meters thick. A helicopter puts down in whatever spot the researcher says ‘stop’ at. You get out of the helicopter with everything you need, set up a camp—including communications, power, tents, food, latrine—take your data and leave 2 weeks later. There is nothing else like that.
Glaciologist Sarah Das traces water flow in Greenland using a harmless, degradable rhodamine dye. Image courtesy of Chris Linder, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.
www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1324113111
No one has a conception of what it takes to do that.” Linder specializes in work near the poles, where the dramatic light of dawn and dusk lingers for hours. Researchers typically include Linder’s work in their grant applications— to produce photos or videos as part of the “broader impacts” of the research. He also has an affiliation with Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. When he goes on a trip, Linder produces slideshows or videos that the researchers can use, and he often helps the teams communicate with school children from the field. In 2011, he published some of his work in a coffee table book, Science on Ice. In this photo, glaciologist Sarah Das of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution dumps 9 pounds of harmless, degradable rhodamine dye into meltwater atop a glacier in Greenland. Das wanted to map how the water from lakes that form each summer drains through the ice and out to the ocean. Das and colleagues had previously recorded a lake draining more than a billion gallons of water in less than a day through a crack in the ice on the lake bottom. Better understanding the “plumbing” under the ice should help scientists predict how Greenland’s ice pack will behave in a warming world. Das’s colleagues used a fluorometer to try to detect invisible, part-per-trillion concentrations of the dye at a predicted fjord site along the coast, but the dye never made a measurable appearance there. Part of what Linder hopes to capture is the creativity that researchers bring to their work, whether improvising a sampling tool from what’s on hand or modifying their plans when they encounter obstacles in the field. “That’s not something people stereotypically associate with scientists,” he says, “but really it is so important.”
PNAS | April 1, 2014 | vol. 111 | no. 13 | 4737
SCIENCE AND CULTURE
Science icescapes Jessica Marshall Science Writer
Scientists will go to the ends of the earth for data. They will drop themselves on a featureless ice sheet to measure a temperature or float down a mosquito-infested river for a few tablespoons of water. Seattle-based photographer Chris Linder follows them and uses his camera to bring science’s epic voyages to the public eye. Although the landscapes of Antarctica or Iceland are striking and spectacular, Linder says “beauty shots” are only part of the story. “I’m trying to make the process of science
come alive,” he says. “It’s not just the result, but it’s the how.” Linder recalls his trip with a team of scientists to Greenland: “There is no campground on the ice sheet. There is nothing— just a sheet of ice 1,000 meters thick. A helicopter puts down in whatever spot the researcher says ‘stop’ at. You get out of the helicopter with everything you need, set up a camp—including communications, power, tents, food, latrine—take your data and leave 2 weeks later. There is nothing else like that.
Glaciologist Sarah Das traces water flow in Greenland using a harmless, degradable rhodamine dye. Image courtesy of Chris Linder, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.
www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1324113111
No one has a conception of what it takes to do that.” Linder specializes in work near the poles, where the dramatic light of dawn and dusk lingers for hours. Researchers typically include Linder’s work in their grant applications— to produce photos or videos as part of the “broader impacts” of the research. He also has an affiliation with Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. When he goes on a trip, Linder produces slideshows or videos that the researchers can use, and he often helps the teams communicate with school children from the field. In 2011, he published some of his work in a coffee table book, Science on Ice. In this photo, glaciologist Sarah Das of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution dumps 9 pounds of harmless, degradable rhodamine dye into meltwater atop a glacier in Greenland. Das wanted to map how the water from lakes that form each summer drains through the ice and out to the ocean. Das and colleagues had previously recorded a lake draining more than a billion gallons of water in less than a day through a crack in the ice on the lake bottom. Better understanding the “plumbing” under the ice should help scientists predict how Greenland’s ice pack will behave in a warming world. Das’s colleagues used a fluorometer to try to detect invisible, part-per-trillion concentrations of the dye at a predicted fjord site along the coast, but the dye never made a measurable appearance there. Part of what Linder hopes to capture is the creativity that researchers bring to their work, whether improvising a sampling tool from what’s on hand or modifying their plans when they encounter obstacles in the field. “That’s not something people stereotypically associate with scientists,” he says, “but really it is so important.”
PNAS | April 1, 2014 | vol. 111 | no. 13 | 4737
