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No distance too far TEXT
Stefanie Hardick
Science is more than libraries, computers, laboratories. Even today, people still conduct research in remote and virtually inaccessible places – after all, the most exciting findings await in the unknown. Here are three stories from an isolated polar station, labyrinthine caves, and the depths of the ocean. The Telemedicine Specialist Anyone who has survived a winter at the Concordia research station is entitled to immortalize themselves with a signpost. In the workshop, Beth Healey is carving “Hereford: 16,533 kilometers” into her sign. At this moment, the British woman is further away from her hometown than the ISS space station, in terms of both distance and the duration of the journey. The research station is located 1,000 kilometers from the coast of Antarctica, on a high plateau 3,233 meters above sea level. Originally it was built for ice drilling, which is used to explore earlier climates. But Healey is wintering here in 2016 on behalf of the European Space Agency. As a research physician, she looks after the other twelve crew members. Above all, how ever, she investigates the effects of extreme conditions and isolation on the body and psyche. Her findings should help to prepare Mars missions. Concordia is sited in one of the most hostile places on the planet, the so-called “White Mars.” During the winter, temperatures drop to minus 80 degrees Centigrade. In an emergency, no aircraft could bring help because kerosene already freezes at minus 50 degrees. At the beginning of May, the sun sinks behind the horizon, and not a single beam of light penetrates through to the researchers for 105 days. Due to the altitude, the air contains a third less oxygen than at sea level. Every short walk becomes a strenuous endurance run. Healey monitors the crew’s vitals using smart bracelets. She can also track who is sitting together in the common room – or isolating him- or herself even further from the others. She records her everyday observations on the mood of the team in video diaries. It quickly becomes evident that, even after a long
time, human beings are hard put to adapt to the extremely low oxygen supply. The polar night is nerve-wracking: “The darkness is brutal. Only when the sun is missing do you realize how much it connects us to the rest of the world,” says Healey. The sleeping rhythms of the crew are disrupted. “In the beginning, I was awake four nights in a row.” Because everyone withdraws for their own research projects, partici pation in the common meals is mandatory. “While some were having breakfast, others were already eating their supper,” says Healey. “And it always felt like we were eating pasta at 3 a.m.” Appetites disappear, everyone loses weight, becomes paler. “I felt like my body was falling apart.” The psychological stability of the team and its members can make the difference between life and death during a real space mission. In an emergency, crews are then dependent on telemedicine specialists who can initiate not only physical but also mental healing. Healey wants to conduct further research into diagnosis and treatment from a distance, and advance telemedicine. Not only because she dreams of flying into space herself at some point: “On Earth, many people live far removed from medi cal care. Our research can also improve their living conditions.” The Biological Anthropologist Anyone who wants to research the family tree of humans usually relies on fossils remains. From these, one can infer the height, brain volume and lifestyle of our distant relatives. However, complete remains of pre- and early humans are rarely excavated. Often only a tooth or skull fragment is found. All the more unique is the treasure trove housed in South Africa’s Rising Star caves. More than 1,500 fossils have been unearthed here, some 50 kilometers northwest of Johannesburg. They are the bones of at least 15 individuals of a previously unknown species that was baptized Homo naledi. Among them is even a six-year-old child whose fragile skull has miraculously been preserved for 250,000 years.
