Exploratorium Webcast Series
Live from the Arctic
May 22-June 22, 2008
http://icestories.exploratorium.edu

Anthropologist and Archaeologist Anne Jensen

Join us for the next installment of Ice Stories. From May 22-June 22, 2008, when the Exploratorium goes to the Arctic to interview polar scientists doing research on climate change and in geology, oceanography, biology, and archeology. For more details and the complete Webcast schedule, please visit http://icestories.exploratorium.edu.
Meet scientists who study Arctic Sea ice, as well as biologists, geologists, and marine scientists. Meet the Inupiat population who help inform the work of scientists in the Arctic.

Scientists have been given cameras and will document their adventures, in real time, so you can follow their research, ask questions, and share in their discoveries as they occur. This experiment, in celebration of the International Polar Year (2008), provides an up-close-and-personal look at research in extreme environments through the thoughts and experiences of the scientists working there.

In Ice Stories, you’ll learn about Jansen’s archaeological work, of course, but you’ll also hear about something fundamental to the scientific process: what you set out to discover isn’t always what you find. While examining a site, for example, she found harpoon heads similar to those unearthed at early Thule sites in Greenland and Canada. (The Thule people are “distant cousins” of the Inupiat.) It made her wonder about Thule expansion across the North American Arctic; she’s hoping to learn more about it as new clues surface and are studied and she does more research. She’s also working with other scientists on related projects, which include collecting and studying the ancient DNA samples, and gathering and studying DNA from current area residents and linking it to the ancient population.