JAMES BRADLEY
  • Home
  • People
  • Research
  • Publications
  • News
  • Classes
  • Gallery





​

AMP'D Blog: Sayali Mulay

3/22/2021

1 Comment

 
Picture
Picture
​As we got off our boat ‘Farm’ that took us safely and steadily to Ny-Ålesund from Longyearbyen, I looked up and tried to digest the fact that after so much hustle and bustle we were finally standing at 79°North! With all the snow-clad mountains and pretty pink sunsets, I was surely already in love with this place. 

​Cut to day 3, when the wind was howling at a speed of 35 m/sec blowing piles of snow into our faces. We were pacing ourselves to set up our lab. As you can tell, today wasn’t the most pleasant day in Ny-Ålesund. There was a snow blizzard outside, and I was dragging my tiny body squished inside my bulky snowsuit to the laboratory. While barely walking to the lab (mostly being carried by the wind), I thought to myself, “How do people do this? What kind of a willpower does one really have to travel to the most extreme places on earth?
How have I even dreamt of walking on Mars one day if I’m struggling just here?” And with all those thoughts flowing faster than the wind around me, I reached the lab. 

We started unboxing the lab instruments, pipette tip boxes, DNA extraction kits and all the other magical scientific equipment to get ready for the big field day. I was looking around and I could see us newly started, fresh graduate students excitedly set up our desks, I could see people discussing experiments and testing instruments, I could hear small cheers here and there with yayys and woopwoops when my friends could find something they were scavenging for in the giant science boxes. And there it was, I had found the secret sauce that drags researchers from different parts of the world to visit such extreme places on our planet. It is the science! I looked at myself in a shiny glass of the laminar flow hood, and I could totally justify that smile I had, “It’s the things we do for science.” I whispered to myself. 

When I walked back to my room, I sat down and paused for a moment. I could still hear the wind gushing, but this time it was out of my window. I gathered all the things I had felt throughout today, and if I had one word to describe those feelings ‘gratefulness’ would top the list. To be working with such great scientists, discussing adulting with the coolest fellow grad students and doing science at one of the most beautiful yet brutal places on our planet is an out of the world experience. And I am eagerly looking forward to the big field day and whatever that comes out of it!​
1 Comment
Rahul Pendharkar
3/23/2021 04:17:07 am

It's a privilege be in part of such expedition , one of the many links each team completes and builds foundational steps for next team of researchers. Science is endless tiring and ever continuous journey. Deliverables of expedition is a necessary condition to be there , your experience as a human to enjoy all the beautiful universe around you that very few get to visit will be with you for a long long time and in time it's memory will recharge you when you need to unwind and need motivation to carry on ahead.

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Archives

    October 2024
    April 2024
    March 2024
    January 2024
    November 2023
    October 2023
    September 2023
    August 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    March 2023
    January 2023
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    January 2019
    October 2018
    September 2018
    June 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly
  • Home
  • People
  • Research
  • Publications
  • News
  • Classes
  • Gallery