1 December, 1996

December 1, Sunday McMurdo Temperature 20-25F

I got up late - about 8 and skipped breakfast so I could run some more samples in lab. We went to Protestant church services at the Chapel in the Snow at 11 and ate brunch later. The galley makes wonderful Belgian waffles while you wait at the Sunday brunch hour. I had one. Yum.

We immediately went back to lab. I noticed that the announced open hours for the Crary lab were only 8 hours on Sunday while other days it's open 12 hours. Of course we all have keys and usually work many more than those when it is officially open. It seems that nearly the only difference on Sunday is that besides church you work 9-10 hours instead of our usual 12-15.

I ran samples until 6 and then we ate before going to a science lecture at 8:15. The topic was "Drugs from the Sea," by Dr. Bill Baker from Florida Institute of Technology. His research is to find natural products from invertebrates such as sponges or nudibrachs that can be antibiotics or have potential as cancer cures. They have found several possibilities in a type of bright yellow sponge here and are investigating several other species. I worked on e-mail messages trying to get more current on my journals until 12:30. I had gotten far behind while I was camping out at Ferrell. I had hand writtin those journals and then had to type them in for e-mail. As I look out the window before going back to my room I see it is snowing. I hope it clears because Jennifer and I would like to get out to Willie Field and collect more data tomorrow.

There is not much to tell about today other than working in the lab.