Antarctic Scientists

I sent off my manuscript for the Antarctic Scientists book today, part of Enslow's Extreme Scientists series. It was a little late (sorry, Ben, if you're reading this!), but it was sure nice to get it out. After a lot of angst, I think it turned out pretty well. It turned out to be more difficult than I had imagined to do some of the supporting research here, and there were family issues that complicated things. I still need to round up photos (and permissions, I suspect).

Writing this book reminded me of why I really love writing nonfiction, and in particular, about science. There is only so much I can experience in my lifetime, and I want to do it all. I'd love to travel to Antarctica, Madagascar, India...well, the list goes on. I dig scientists (hey, I'm married to one!) and their boundless curiosity about the natural world.

In the process of writing the Antarctic Scientists book, I got to learn about what it's like to camp out in -40 F weather for weeks at a time, stumble across dinosaur bones, build a telescope that can take us close to the big bang, or dig in the mud off the Antarctic coast. And I get to learn about the science while I'm at it.

Frustrated scientist? Well, maybe. But when I got out of grad school with a MS instead of the planned-for PhD, I reminded myself that some people like to learn a lot about one thing, and other people like to learn a little about a lot of things. I'm the latter, a butterfly, for sure.

To come...Volcano Scientists.