That's a Wrap!

56 total days in Alaska, 33 days in the dark, 12 crates of supplies, 2 days of packing, and 1 day away from arriving home to Michigan! Please enjoy this picture journey of the 3 hours it took to move our instruments and crates into storage for the holidays before their transport back to Michigan:

Last day in the CakeEater Shed. Everything is packed!

We had to pack the ATOFMS in the opposite order that we unpacked. This meant putting the ATOFMS into its crate on the street!

Picking up the crate from storage

 Soon, the ATOFMS’ livelihood will rest in the arms of this forklift

It took 5 men to lift the ATOFMS onto a sled:

My heart stopping as I thought this was the end of the ATOFMS

The ATOFMS right before it went for a ride down 3 steps

Now we meet the crate at the side of the street. Unfortunately for us, it’s -3^oF outside and winds of 18 mph. My phone couldn’t take it and defiantly shut itself off despite having full battery. Luckily, all went well. We were able to make one trip and everything made it to storage safely.

The last photo I was able to take before my phone died from the cold

3 hours later. Jun’s phone comes back alive for one last picture:

All packed. All moved. All done!

A big THANK YOU to UIC-Science for all their help moving and solving logistical problems along the way and the Department of Energy Early Career and ARM Programs for housing us and funding the APUN study. We collected plenty of interesting data, and hopefully, we’ll be able to share our findings with you all soon!

Jamy Lee, Pratt Lab PhD student

CHEM 125-Snow on umich.edu homepage!

Our introductory chemistry lab course involving a semester-long authentic research experience in Arctic snow chemistry is featured today on the www.umich.edu homepage!

Michigan News article: https://engaged.umich.edu/news-features/properties-of-arctic-snow-not-your-typical-1st-year-chemistry-experiment/

Bringing a Piece of Home to Utqiagvik, AK

After snoozing my alarm for the fifth time, it is hard to believe that it is 8 am. Opening the blinds, I do a double take between my phone and the outside world. Am I sure it isn’t the middle of the night? With one streetlight illuminating the vicinity, I can barely make out the buildings next to us. It is pitch black outside. If we are lucky today, we might see a slight glimmer of sunlight around noon. With two cups of coffee in and more cups of tea waiting back at the duplex, Jun and I embark on one of three trips per day to the aptly named Cakeeater shed. With the pleasant humming of the instruments ringing in my head, there is one pertinent question that I must ask Jun, “What’s for dinner?”  

A glimmer of Sunlight at 11 AM 12/02/2018

Between deciphering error messages on the instruments and peeking outside for a glimpse of sunlight, food has brought us comfort during the darkest days (literally). During the downtime, I’m watching the food network as I hunch over a laptop analyzing our mass spectra from the previous day. I make mental notes of my favorite meals before strolling through the only large grocery store with fresh vegetables in Utqiagvik. Surprisingly, the Alaska Commercial Company is fully stocked with a bounty of options. You can even find exotic ingredients like bok choy and okra. The prices are vastly different than what we would expect from Ann Arbor, MI but by now we don’t blink twice at grabbing a $7 loaf of bread.

Returning to the duplex with hundreds of dollars in groceries, the difficult question arises again, what’s for dinner? There are about 8 charming restaurants in the area but nothing beats a home-cooked meal. We could make a hearty chili using the instant pot provided for us, or a taste of Thanksgiving with a green bean casserole, or pancakes and bacon because we are adults! Though our main concern is keeping our instruments functional, we have spent the downtime during the past 6 weeks perfecting our culinary skills. From cooking the perfect 135°F medium rare steak to watching bread rise, I now feel as comfortable cooking as I do tuning the aerosol time-of-flight mass spectrometer (ATOFMS). With 25 mph winds and more darkness ahead of us, we light a match to turn on the gas stove.    

A few of our home cooked meals

Today, I make something that reminds us both of home: wonton soup. Wrapping tiny spoonfuls of meat into a paper-thin wrapper brings back nostalgic childhood memories of waking up early Christmas morning to make wontons with my mom. With the darkness and wind whispering for us to stay indoors, this will always bring us comfort and warmth. With this meal, we bring a little bit of home to our new home in Utqiagvik.

A bowl of hearty, homemade wonton soup

- Jamy Lee, Pratt Lab Ph.D. Student part of the APUN study in Utqiagvik, AK

Care package to Jamy & Jun!

Pratt Lab group members Jamy Lee and Jun Liu have been in Utqiagvik, Alaska since Oct. 28, and the sun went down for winter, with Polar Night beginning on Nov. 18. Jamy and Jun have been doing a great job keeping the ATOFMS going, while frequently dealing with getting stuck in snowbanks when going to/from the lab! It's been dark for quite a while, so the Pratt Lab decided to send them a care package! USPS flat rate shipments work to send mail to Utqiagvik, as long as you're patient! So, "3-day" shipping took 1 week, which is actually really fast for all the way to the North Slope of Alaska! They sent us the following photos of their excitement, with the message: "We received the package today! Thank you guys so much! These will keep us sane through the never-ending darkness!"

Jamy excited about Sriracha and socks! "Photos taken at 12:30 pm. Not much daylight as usual."

Jun enjoying his "Keep It Cool" socks!

Beautiful Northern Lights (Photo credit: Jun Liu)

Holiday Party!

Pratt Lab holiday party joint with the Ault Lab - celebrating another successful semester!