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This is a dropstone.
It’s a rock fragment
that I found in the very first sediment core sample I ever analysed.
It was drilled to the west of Spitsbergen
and a sediment core sample usually consists of very fine layers of sediment:
clay or silty sediments.
So a stone like this is remarkable.
You ask yourself, how did it get to be there, what is it doing there?
That was my first.
It was really... I had studied geoscience before,
but never had much interest in climate research or polar research.
And when I was in Bremerhaven at the institute and had my first sedimentary core
in front of me, this was the first object that I had touched where I said:
OK then, I want to go on to study climate research.
I reconstruct how the climate and the environmental conditions
in the higher polar regions have changed in the past.
In my doctoral thesis I concentrated on the climate
and environmental reconstruction in the Fram Strait.
Here is Greenland, this is Spitsbergen, this small archipelago.
For orientation: this is Iceland and here are Norway, Sweden, Finland.
And the Fram Strait is this narrow canal.
At the same time it is also the deepest gateway between the world’s seas and the arctic ocean.
That means there is an immense exchange of cold and warm water and also of marine ice.
This is where the marine ice, you can’t see that on this map, is transported southward
through the Fram Strait to the Atlantic.
Exciting. The first thing I saw was the icebergs.
We were in Baffin Bay, to the west of Greenland and that's when I saw my first iceberg.
I was standing on deck. Of course I took a photo of myself and the iceberg
for the loved ones back home and sent it straight away.
And then we passed through the Northwest Passage, everything full of fog,
but also ice, proper marine ice. And that was the eureka moment for me:
Aha, that is what will be keeping me occupied over the next three, four years during my doctorate.
That was it. It really was a kind of starting signal.
I had started on my doctoral thesis half a year before,
but it had just been a lot of reading, theory. And then to see it for the first time on board,
there it is, my doctoral topic, that really was a moment of realisation.
Research is hard work too. Of course it’s cold up there.
The cold is one component, wet clothing is another!
But it brings home to you: I am here on an expedition and here to work
and not just to mess around and look at the world.
But it can also be tough going.
As soon as the core is drilled and raised from the ocean floor,
that's a few thousand metres and you are standing at the railings,
looking and waiting, what will come up?
When you see then, that the drilling rod is bent, then you know, something went wrong.
Most of the time this means that the drilling rod is empty, no sediment in there,
and then of course there’s disappointment all round.
But at exactly that moment, when the drilling rod breaks the water’s surface,
that's when you look, when you think now comes the exciting part.
I was allowed to take a ride in a helicopter too.
We went almost all the way to the North Pole, just a few kilometres short,
and of course that’s so exciting.
It also brings home to you when you’re sitting in a helicopter, going up in the air
and you see nothing but water and somewhere this small nutshell,
“Polarstern” the research ship.
Each port is thousands of kilometres away, so you really have to rely on everything working:
the ship, the team, the helicopter pilot too. It’s exciting, very exciting.
You can play the girl card if you want to get out of these activities,
when there are heavy things to be carried or something.
But you can also say, hey, I’m not made of sugar, my fingernails are trimmed
and I’m happy to help out. And of course that's welcomed.
Just as it’s welcomed in the team if you can tie a few knots, to lash a few crates on board.
When you’re not totally…well, as a girlie girl on board you might have a harder time.
If you signalise, I am happy to help – obviously there are some things you can’t do,
that's fair enough, but if you’re willing to work then…
I haven’t had any bad experiences, none at all.
I think there are a lot more women in research, in polar research as well,
than one would expect. It’s often a question of how long they can stand
their ground in the sciences, but then that's a personal decision after the doctorate,
do you go on or not. Family, yes or no?
On a ship it's the same thing, if you have two two kids back home you
probably think twice about it: do I take the trip, ten weeks, or not?
There are people who can do that and I think it’s admirable.
But I would probably count myself more to the women who, with two kids back home,
or even one, would say, no I’ll stay home.
You can still get the colleagues to bring the sediments back for you.
The research as such doesn't have to suffer.
The level of scientific exchange on board is naturally extremely high.
You can talk about everything under the sun, but because you’re on the ship
and you have your goals and of course you do start to plan…
now we have this super drill sample, what can we do with it, what can we reconstruct…
there are cooperations established and a lot of scientific exchanges is going on.
When you are back home, in the institute, the laboratory, your office,
then all of a sudden you’re on your own again, and something is missing a little.
The communication on board really is very heightened. Which is a good thing.
I got the news when I was on the ship – there wasn't much email contact
but then the message came from my mother:
you probably know already that you’re going to be an auntie.
And I was like, what? My sister didn't tell me!
And then I got the email from her, pregnant, of all times
when you’re on the ship well you’ll be back soon, before the birth…
And that was something that pulled me back.
Even now, keeps me grounded.
Having my nephew, then my niece came along,
on my lap, playing with them knowing there is something else.
What I find fascinating is that here in Potsdam almost every PhD student
already has children, one or two.
In Bremerhaven that really is the exception.
I think there are two PhD students I know
who had children whilst working on their doctoral thesis.
And all the others not at all.
And here…it seems there's a different atmosphere here.
Someone told me here the other day,
you are almost looked at askance if you don't have any children.
It’s just one of the things that's part of the plan.
That did surprise me. I don't know what the reason is.
But I think, the colleagues simply assume you’ll have children at some point, why not.
Everyone here is quite clued on and knows that personal happiness is a priority.
I think, when you’re old you probably won’t remember the moments where everything
went really well at work, or when you published a great paper, as much.
That won’t count anymore. That's when personal happiness comes to the fore, children, yes.