Microbiome diversity and function in the Sør Rondane Mountains, East Antarctica Follow the updates on the expeditions of the MICROBIAN project to continental Antarctica!
14-01-2018
Science communication is important: special issue of Polar Record
Call for papers: Polar Record special issue on education, outreach & engagement
Guest editors: Rhian Salmon and Rebecca Priestley
Submission deadline:31 January 2018
Ten years ago, the International Polar Year 2007-2008 led to an
upwelling of Education, Outreach and Communication (EOC) initiatives
across the polar research community that have had long-lasting effect.
At the 2016 SCAR conference in Kuala Lumpur, the Humanities and Social
Science Expert Group identified science communication as a research
priority. This special Issue of Polar Record will be dedicated
to Education, Outreach, and Engagement related to polar research, and
will help to draw scholarly attention to this important, but neglected,
aspect of polar research. It will be published in January 2019, in
conjunction with the tenth anniversary of the International Polar Year
2007-2008 (which ran from March 2017-March 2019).
More information: https://sciencernr.wordpress.com/2017/04/19/call-for-papers-polar-record-special-issue-on-education-outreach-engagement/
Interested into our first exploration of the microbial diversity around the Station Princess Elisabeth? See http://antarcticabelgium.blogspot.be/
After crossing the Sahara during an 11 hour flight from Paris to Cape
Town, the MICROBIAN team is preparing to leave for the largest desert on
earth, the Antarctic! In the office of the International Polar
Foundation, Elie, Valentina and Sam, together with
the expedition doctor, Barbara, and 2 Turkish geologists, Serdar and
Naki, tried on and tested many kinds of Polar clothing and gear.
Insulating layer after layer was put on while temperatures in Cape Town
reached 32°C. In the afternoon, all the scientists
and operating personnel travelling to different research stations in
Dronning Maud Land attended a briefing given by the Antarctic Logistic
Centre. The briefing provided the latest details of the upcoming flight
to the Russian Antarctic research station Novolazarevskaya
(Novo for the friends). From there a Basler BT-67 aircraft will take
the team across the Sor Rondane Mountains to the Belgian Princess
Elisabeth station during a 1.5 hours flight. The weather in Novo is very
mild at the moment and forecasted to be between
-2 and -3°C at the time of landing. If the weather remains fine the
team should arrive at the Princess Elisabeth station in the evening. So
fingers crossed and stay tuned for more news to come in the next few
days! The 2018 MICROBIAN team. From left to right: Prof. Dr. Elie Verleyen (Ghent University), Sam Lambrechts (PhD student, Ghent University) and Valentina Savaglia (PhD student, Liège University).
Hello and welcome to the blog of the MICROBIAN project. Here you can follow the expeditions of the MICROBIAN team to the Sør Rondane Mountains in East Antarctica. Check out this blog frequently for updates from one of the most extreme environments on Earth!
After crossing the Sahara during an 11 hour flight from Paris to Cape
Town, the MICROBIAN team is preparing to leave for the largest desert on
earth, the Antarctic! In the office of the International Polar
Foundation, Elie, Valentina and Sam, together with
the expedition doctor, Barbara, and 2 Turkish geologists, Serdar and
Naki, tried on and tested many kinds of Polar clothing and gear.
Insulating layer after layer was put on while temperatures in Cape Town
reached 32°C. In the afternoon, all the scientists
and operating personnel travelling to different research stations in
Dronning Maud Land attended a briefing given by the Antarctic Logistic
Centre. The briefing provided the latest details of the upcoming flight
to the Russian Antarctic research station Novolazarevskaya
(Novo for the friends). From there a Basler BT-67 aircraft will take
the team across the Sor Rondane Mountains to the Belgian Princess
Elisabeth station during a 1.5 hours flight. The weather in Novo is very
mild at the moment and forecasted to be between
-2 and -3°C at the time of landing. If the weather remains fine the
team should arrive at the Princess Elisabeth station in the evening. So
fingers crossed and stay tuned for more news to come in the next few
days!
