This morning seemed to start off at a fast pace. Alvin was loaded and launched earlier than any other morning, which means everyone was “released” to start our work that much earlier. Many of us were on deck to see Joe off for his first dive (he was accompanied by Ken). There are lots of “newbies” aboard, so there will be plenty of “initiations” by the time we complete the 18 or 19 dives that are scheduled during the expedition. And, guess what? Mine is tomorrow!

I am very excited to finally dive in Alvin. It has been a dream of mine since my young days of watching Discovery Channel and PBS to explore the deep sea. Now the chance has arrived. I am a bit nervous too, though, because I will have a lot of responsibilities while down there. We will be conducting the first of the Extreme Experiments, as well as the second Phone Call to the Deep. In addition to that, I have to make sure that I use all of Alvin’s equipment correctly to get good video and still footage of the dive. I will be diving with Brian Glazer, and I will have to assist him with the long list of dive objectives that have to be accomplished. Fortunately, Brian has gone down four times before, so he’s a “vet.” Mostly, I will have to take good notes, work some of the cameras, and run one piece of equipment (“The Sipper”) to collect water samples. All of that is essential to a productive dive, and the scientists aboard depend heavily on the resulting information.

Given all of that, it has been difficult to completely enjoy my excitement. As Dr. Cary said, “It will not be a joyride.” So, I spent much of today getting mentally prepared for the big day I have ahead of me tomorrow. As usual, though, I still had several other tasks on which to focus my attention throughout the day — all of which related to my job as Education Coordinator, and most of which had some kind of glitch or another today. They have all been worked out now.

I did get a chance, however, to do something a bit different this afternoon. Craig Dickson, the Chief Engineer, took some of us on a tour of the engine room and other operational rooms at the lower level of the ship. The tour took about an hour. It was interesting, but there was so much to see that I couldn’t remember some details by the time it was over. I have posted a few pictures and a movie in Neat Stuff for you all to see, all of which encompass only a small portion of everything that I saw during the tour.

Afterwards, it was back to work for the rest of the night. In between, there were my usual lunch and dinner breaks and science meeting. I also went outside for few brief moments of fresh air. Right after dinner, I made it out in time to see the sunset. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get my camera in time to capture it. I’m sure I will have another opportunity before the cruise ends. I also went out later, and saw an amazingly serene sight — the full moon was only halfway up in the sky, it was encircled by a halo of clouds, and it was brightly reflecting across the water. When I tried to take a picture of it, they didn’t come out clearly. I guess these moments were just for me this time around, and they both made my day that much better.

It’s getting late, and I have to be awake, ready, and on deck by 7a.m. (0700) to get prepped for my dive — my first ever!!! I have already packed my warm layers and stayed clear of beverages for the last several hours. Several people are looking forward to taking pictures of me now that I am in the “hot seat,” since I have been the one to capture so many of their “moments” on camera. Wish me luck, and I’ll tell you all about it when I return.

A day in the life of Kristy Henscheid....

My day starts the same every morning here on Atlantis — I wake to my watch alarm and drag myself out of bed by 0730 in order to watch the Alvin launch. I never get tired of seeing the sub and its amazing crew in action. I also like to be around in case they need my help cleaning Alvin's hangar — the crew does so much for us that I'm happy to give some back.

By the time I get out to the fantail, some other scientists have already started swabbing the deck in the hangar, so they don't need my help. (Oh, darn!) Today one of my coworkers, Joe, is diving for the first time, but the humidity makes my camera's lens foggy, and I only get one shot of him getting in the sub. Alison has two of Joe's cameras hanging from her neck, though, so we have ample photographic evidence for Joe to show his wife.

Once the sub disappears beneath the waves, we all desert the deck. I'm having a Garfield moment — I'm hungry, but I also want go back to bed for a few hours. I was up late last night labeling RNA from the Pompeii worm with fluorescent dye so I can put it on a microarray. This mostly entails incubating a tube with all the reaction components and letting an enzyme do the work, but I need to be around to make sure the thermocycler that heats my tubes is working, and also to put the tubes in the freezer once they're done, to preserve them until the morning.

If I go back to bed, I won't get much work done today, because it's easy to lose track of time in my dark, (fairly) quiet cabin. So I grab some leftovers from breakfast, check my e-mail (Christmas plans from my mom, sports update from the captain, but nothing from my boyfriend who's away on a trip for work), and head to the lab. Despite my sleepiness, it doesn't really feel like Monday because every day on the ship is pretty much the same, and we do the same work on weekends. Half an hour later, after I've made plans for today and reviewed what I wrote in my notebook yesterday, I realize that I forgot to add a crucial ingredient (the RNA!) to one of my tubes, and it will have to be re-done. I consult with Alison to re-tool my plans for today. Unfortunately, this happens a lot in science — you do things over a lot. Sometimes it's because you mess up, and sometimes it's just to repeat a result and make sure it's real. I often comment that this is why it's called REsearch — it involves a lot of redoing. That can get annoying, but it's part of science. It's also very useful to learn from your mistakes — I very seldom make the same mistake twice. Talking with others is also useful because you can learn from their mistakes and experience, which is why I'm glad Alison is on this cruise, since she has more experience than I do with microarrays. In addition, out here on the ocean we have to improvise creatively to solve a problem because we have limited resources — we only have what we brought on board.

Soon it's lunchtime and then time for a special treat. Jeff, the Chief Engineer, is giving a group of us a tour of the engine room today. I miss a lot of the specifics in the noise, but I have a great time taking photos of the ship's beating heart and all the gauges, buttons, and control panels. Don is also entertaining to watch as he narrates his video and has engineer-geek moments.

Back to work for me. I check the products of yesterday's reactions and am disappointed: my labeling did not work. So much for staying up late running the reaction. Without fluorescent cDNA (a copy of the RNA), I can't run a microarray, so it's back to that step of the process. What did I say about Research?

Before I know it, it's time for Alvin to surface, and I scramble to get things ready for the samples we know they're bringing. Alison prepares for Joe's initiation, rounding up buckets and whipped cream. It's nice to get out in the sunshine for a while — I'd hoped to do a little reading on deck while I hybridized my microarray (letting it sit in a warm-water bath while the labeled DNA sticks to sequences which match), but the setbacks meant I spent the afternoon in the lab trying to figure out why last night's stuff didn't work and getting ready to do it again, as well as helping Alison process yesterday's Pompeii worm samples. (Once they're brought up on Alvin, we freeze them, then scrape off the bacterial hairs covering their backs, then individually wrap them in labeled tinfoil and put them back in the freezer for later work. As well as measuring their length, taking notes on their condition, and entering all this data into a computer. Good science requires good recordkeeping.)

Once the sub has finally been pulled back into its hangar and we're given the OK by the Alvin group, we swarm the basket. We probably look a little like vultures — vultures with elbows and thermometers and data sheets and sample containers. Today's dive has been quite successful — there are data and samples for every group on board. We congratulate and thank Tony, today's Alvin pilot — he has worked hard and done a wonderful job on our behalf.

Samples are hurriedly processed — in my case, laying out the Pompeii worms that have been preserved in "RNA Later" on a cookie sheet covered in tinfoil so they can be frozen — before dinner. After dinner (which culminated with some excellent brownies that rival the "Oh Wow" Bars for yumminess), I finish planning the re-run of my labeling reactions and set them up to do their stuff. I'm done a few hours earlier than last night, so I can finish and put them in the freezer at a more reasonable hour and get some sleep before another bright-and-early Alvin launch tomorrow morning. Even better, there's time for me to join others in watching "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation" to commemorate the holiday season. (We've started to decorate our lab spaces — some groups brought Christmas lights and strung them along the ceiling, and I've made a few paper snowflakes and put them in the windows of the lab doors.) It's been another busy day of ups and downs doing science aboard the R/V Atlantis.