Welcome to brain Stuff production of I Heart Radio Pay brain Stuff Lauren Vogal bamb Here. We tend to think of Antarctica as being a giant, frozen, empty waste land. If that's the impression you personally have of the continent at the south end of our planet, well done. It is indeed just as huge, frozen and full of a whole lot of nothing as you think it is. And that's said. As with all deserts, people do live and
work there. In the case of the southernmost continent. The humans they're mostly comprise polar researchers trying to figure out what Antarctica's deal is, and the drivers, mechanics, cooks, pilots, and electricians who support them and keep the research stations running. So what's it like living and working on the most remote place on the planet. There are a few different ways to live and work in Antarctica. The continent is home to seventy five individual research stations, and they're run
by thirty countries. Of these science spaces, forty five are actively operating year round, although most are accessible for only a three month window every year due to weather conditions. Researchers first have their stuff shipped to a base like the U. S. McMurdo Station on Ross Island, which they use as a staging area for their field expedition. McMurdo Station was officially established in nineteen fifty two and can support more than one thousand, two hundred residents at a time.
Once team members are ready for the field, they're taken with all of their stuff in a plane and dropped off. Some researchers work on ships, but not all ships are research vessels. During the austral summer, cruise ships regularly depart from Argentina and travel to the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula, which is considered the Banana Belt of Antarctica. It's much warmer than the rest of the continent and is where virtually all the wildlife hangs out. However, for such a
largely lonely place, you're early alone there. Pretty much everybody on Antarctica lives in cramped quarters, either in tents or in dormitories or on ships. We spoke via email with Dr Narita Wilson, an invertebrate marine molecular biologist at the Western Australian Museum. She said it's tough not getting any loane time for many weeks at a time. I've always been based on ships, where the work hours are long and the sleeping quarters are close, often four in a
very small bunk room. Being alone requires a having the time and be having a place to go. Because of safety, you can't always roam the decks of the ship alone, so mostly you are in company. The research stations themselves are kind of like small towns, but only kind of. Very few people over winter there, and the continent has no indigenous population, so nobody was born there. There are no children around, and nobody has much of a history there.
We also spoke with Dr Jenny Baseman, a polar researcher and the executive director of the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research. She said, and an Arctic research station is like a remote mining town, but because it's nobody's permanent home, it's everybody's home. Everybody's very friendly and helpful. Everyone feels excited and fortunate to be there. Because there's twenty four hour
daylight during the austral summer. The temporary residents work a lot, but in their free time they hang out at the bar or the coffee shop and go to a movie or play trivia. Sadly, the bowling Alley that the U. S. Navy built at McMurdo in the nineteen sixties closed in two thousand nine. However, there are absolutely challenges to living and working normally. For example, the weather can and I quote,
turn to milk in five minutes. One Dr David dal Mayer, Professor emeritus in the University of George's Geology department, spent twenty years as a naturalist on small Antark Dick cruise ships. He also spent a few field seasons out on the ice studying the geology of the area. He remembered my first day in the field, we got dropped off six hundred miles inland from mcmurdough. We watched the plane turn into a little speck in the distance, and we started
to our field site. Pretty soon the wind came up, a thick fog developed, and all of a sudden I realized we were walking over our own tracks. We were walking in circles. We shut it down, put up the emergency tents, and we sat there for two and a half days. I'd say the wind was easily fifty knots and making it even more difficult out on the ice. It's tough to judge distances. Del Mayer said, you look at something and you think, oh, that's maybe four miles away.
Eight hours later, you're only halfway there. There's no reference for distance out there. All of this is part of why scientists who arrive in an Arctica must undergo survival training. Survival schools teach them skills like how to build shelter out of ice and snow. Perhaps most strangely, though, there are no smells there. With the exception of the other humans, you're almost constantly around almost nothing on Antarctica smells throughout most of the continent. There are no plants or animals
to stink up the place. Baseman said, when you're coming back on the plane from McMurdo to New Zealand, about three quarters of the way back, you can start smelling plants. Your sense of smell is so desensitized that the smell of pollen in the air just washes over you. It's incredible. Today's episode was written by Jescelyn Shields and produced by Tyler Lang. For more on this and lots of other
cool topics, visit how Stuff works dot com. Brain Stuff is production of I Heart Radio for more podcasts my Heart Radio, visit the heart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.