Microscopy At The Ends Of The Earth

The first time you stand on the deck of a research icebreaker as it crunches its way through the Antarctic pack Ice, you're surprised at how many colors there are. Ice covers the sea everywhere you look; perhaps here and there an occasional gargantuan iceberg rises majestically above the pack. Everything between you and all three hundred and sixty degrees of the horizon is gently undulating under brilliant sunshine in unison with the sea swell. It's a January mid afternoon, the heart of the southern summer, and you're bundled up against the biting cold. You can't stop smillng.