I am going to Antarctica to install and maintain experimental equipment for the University of Newcastle. The project's official title is "Observations of ULF Space Plasma Waves in Antarctica", and scores 23 out of 25 on the Australian Antarctic Division's rating of scientific and strategic relevance. It has received an Australian Antarctic Science Grant of $19,800 and the logistic support for my trip has been estimated at a cool $227,000.

With such a large amount of scientific value and government money resting on my work in Antarctica, it is imperative that I be professional at all times. This is therefore not the place to point out that we call Space Plasma researchers 'Spasmoids', and nor is it at all appropriate to comment on the fact that both the Australian Antarctic Science group and the Space and Atmospheric Science unit have acronyms teetering exceedingly close to being called ASS. (Not that a slightly dodgey abbreviation would be out of place in Space Physics - one of the several imaging networks used at the University of Newcastle is the Dual Auroral Radar Network known as SuperDARN.)

It's likely that once I arrive, depending on weather conditions, my work will be done in two or three weeks. That leaves a possible further 8 weeks to fill in at the base, plus two weeks each way on the ship. That's a lot of extra time that could be being put to use for cold hard science. That's why I've been delighted to receive emails from Slush readers suggesting experiments I could carry out for them while in the deep south.

From Rishni in Newcastle:

We have a few experiments for you to perform.
1. If I spit at the ground, how cold does it have to be before the saliva will freeze before hitting the ground?
2. Is it possible that, if I spit off a cliff, the saliva will freeze mid-flight due to wind chill or temperature? If possible, how fast will the saliva be falling? Can it bruise a target person at the bottom? Can the saliva pick up enough static charge to 'zap' the target? If you hit someone's snow buggy, will the insurance company cover the dent under "hail damage"?

Brian in Canada also writes to say: "Now you can personally test whether penguins fall over backwards when something flies directly over their heads."

If you have an experiment you would like carried out in Antarctica, email it to nerdling.zine@gmail.com. I could have a whole eight weeks to spend on it.