Meet the IceCube Scientists at the South Pole!

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2 жыл бұрын

In this interview we get to meet Dr. Josh Veitch-Michaelis and Dr. Martin Wolf, two scientists who helmed the IceCube Laboratory and Neutrino Detector over the Antarctic winter of 2021. Hear what their daily work entails, an explanation of the IceCube Experiment, and their thoughts about being at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station.

Пікірлер: 101

@Saluno375 Жыл бұрын

Doctor Martin Wolf, the stoic German South Pole scientist? Feels like he should have his own TV science-fiction show ;D

@codacoder Жыл бұрын

These videos are gold! And it seems most people haven't discovered them yet, because you deserve many more views!

@JoeSpinstheGlobe Жыл бұрын

Thank you 🙏😊

@nated4wgy Жыл бұрын

Popped up for me today and I'm hooked. It's crazy the equipment they have down there!

@25_26 8 ай бұрын

These people are heroes of science. Mad respect.

@tenic7540 8 ай бұрын

After having read several times about this experiment it’s nice to see at least some of the scientists behind it

@himelos1 8 ай бұрын

Im late to the channel but wanted to thank you for the fascinating peek into life at the south pole. Amazing

@JoeSpinstheGlobe 8 ай бұрын

you're welcome!

@markrobinowitz8473 6 ай бұрын

We're all on spaceship Earth together. Nice to see efforts for cooperation and exploration.

@mikehawkswollen5819 8 ай бұрын

Amazing!! This whole South Pole series is wonderful.

@lennybuttz2162 Жыл бұрын

In your circumstance were support is so vital to existence it must put things in perspective on how we really need each other. Too often those of us in the support world aren't recognized for what we do but there it's very obvious. I think it's good exposure to see both sides of the coin. It's great that everyone takes turns washing dishes. I love that, it can be a meditative experience and it can be fun if you decide to make it fun.

@Sembazuru 7 ай бұрын

Not to mention House Mouse duties to take some of the housekeeping load off of station personnel. (At least in the summer season.)

@aldunlop4622 6 ай бұрын

Absolutely! This sort of cooperation is how we'll build bases on The Moon, and Mars.

@Sembazuru 7 ай бұрын

Bummer. No mention of the surface array, "Ice Top". I helped deploy Ice Top. I built almost all of the tanks in Winchester, Virginia. I helped assemble all the freeze controllers that we used to monitor the freezing process in the tanks. And I was at Pole 3 times to deploy tanks, fill them, and get them started on the freezing process. Each string of the Ice Cube observatory has 2 of my tanks at the top, except for the deep core strings that have one tank each. Each tank has 2 DOMs. So, AFAIR the count of DOMs that they mention includes the Ice Top DOMs. Ice Top is used for two purposes. It is an air shower detector studying the air showers coming down from the sky, and it also functions as an active filter to assist the in-ice array discriminate up-going events from down-going events. When the array was only about half deployed, Ice Top detected its first astronomical object by detecting the shadow of the moon in the background flux of air showers. Not really ground breaking science, but a demonstration of the array's capabilities even at half size.

@aldunlop4622 6 ай бұрын

Cool man, I appreciate your work! I'm fascinated how people like you managed to construct all this infrastructure at the South Pole. I'm very much a space nerd so I think alot about how humanity would build similar(ish) facilities on The Moon and Mars. I've always imagined for each science there'd be at a dozen support staff building and maintaining infrastructure. Your work is appreciated, don't worry. It must make for some interesting conversation over a few beers when someone says, "so, what do you do?" haha.

@cynthiatolman326 4 ай бұрын

This is 2 years old, where have I been? Why did no one tell me, this is absolutely fascinating! I love it. Edit: I feel a channel binge coming on.

@JackT_Music_on_Vinyl 5 ай бұрын

HEROS, all of these folks who go and work there. And I'm sure it's life-changing for them in a good way. Thank you so much for sharing these videos with the rest of the world.

@kmonnier 11 ай бұрын

I really like the spaceship, analogy and mutual respect, seems like earth might be like a spaceship

@aldunlop4622 6 ай бұрын

It most definitely is.

@firstprototype Жыл бұрын

I love practical science but is nice to see 👀 a place for people to work their dream job 😮

@simondavey7787 2 жыл бұрын

Thank you for another fascinating insight.

@Ryan.Matlock Жыл бұрын

7:04 If only that sense of community weren't restricted to the South Pole

@eileenh4927 2 жыл бұрын

Wild to think there's 5,000 of those out in the ice. I wonder what happens if one dies completely? Are there replacement ones?

@JoeSpinstheGlobe 2 жыл бұрын

If that happens, oh well! They're frozen in the ice permanently. There's no real feasible way to get them out again

@aldunlop4622 6 ай бұрын

So, I wonder what the projected life span is?@@JoeSpinstheGlobe

@Peteski-0 Жыл бұрын

Fascinating. Thanks!

@JoeSpinstheGlobe Жыл бұрын

Glad you enjoyed it!

@jeffreysokal7264 7 ай бұрын

Pretty awesome video - Thanks!

@CarlineMullins-te9hg Жыл бұрын

Thanks for sharing awesome videos very interesting 🤔 I'm learning so much

@adventureswithjosie 2 жыл бұрын

Another interesting interview! After hearing so much about the IceClub, I think I finally understand what it's all about!

@HayesRanch 6 ай бұрын

I loved the Video, Martin seemed pretty Cool, but Josh came across as a little arrogant, it could have been the translation of his speaking from his native language to English, but he did seem to talk down a little on the topic. Thank you for doing this, Understanding he concept and why we measure them was probably the biggest thing most people wanted to know. On a scale of 10, this one, IMHO, gets an 8 - Thank you!

@MrQuakeroat 6 ай бұрын

Josh was speaking in his native English. Perhaps it is you who is being a little arrogant.

@AnthonyHigham6414001080 Жыл бұрын

Every area seems to have a microwave oven. Do the people snack a lot?

@JoeSpinstheGlobe Жыл бұрын

Absolutely

@xFersureMatt Жыл бұрын

Questions: Like said, those neutrinos are coming from the sun and trillions go through us every second right? Well how do you recognize which particles are from deep space and which are from our sun? And tell your computer to ignore neutrinos coming from the sun or outside forces for example. And second question is. When those balls were placed in the ice below, did you all fill the space in between the balls with water so it all refreezes? And if so. How did you keep the water being refrozen to become extremely clear like the natural ice dug through? And how is ice more clear than air or ionized water. That's incredible. Even more clear than glass? Is Antarctica's ice the most clear thing on Earth?

@Sembazuru 7 ай бұрын

I'm not a scientist involved with the project, rather I was on the deployment team for the surface array, known as "Ice Top". But since you asked these questions a year ago and no one has replied, I'll try to take a shot at some of them. My apologies if I get some details a bit wrong. Based on what is observed by the DOMs, they can tell a lot about the energies of the incoming neutrinos. Many of the deep space neutrinos that they are studying have higher energies than the neutrinos from the sun (or radioactive processes deep in the Earth). They can also tell the trajectory of the neutrinos so if the event isn't pointing back towards the sun then it didn't come from the sun. (Neutrinos aren't charged so they aren't effected by magnetic fields.) For the deployment, the hot water drill left the hole in the ice filled with water so they only had a certain amount of time to drop the string before the hole froze again. As far as the clarity of the refreeze around the DOMs, they had two things going for them. First, even at the top DOM, there was a kilometer of water above them so the water was already under high pressure. Second, the drill water was melted snow and ice so it was already very pure. I do recall seeing footage from a camera that they sent down on (at least) one of the strings watching the re-freezing process. The drilling of the holes was actually a 3 part process. First, on top of the hard ice is a roughly 30 meter layer (or was it 30 foot? I forget. All I really know is you didn't want to accidentally fall down the hole which _almost_ happened once to one of the station personnel) of compacted snow known as the firn. It is porous so the first stage was to use a special drill head (called the carrot) that heated the drill head with a hot glycol solution. This would melt its way down through the firn much like a hot steel ball through a snow bank, but couldn't melt through the hard ice. Then they would bring in the hot water drill which "drilled" downward with a jet of high pressure hot water. I think they recovered most of the drilling water to re-heat to keep up drilling. I'm not sure if the water recovery was at the top of the hole or somewhere at the top of the drill stack. My guess would be near the top of the hole because you can only suck water up from so high before you create a water barometer... The third stage was to measure the diameter of the finished hole. I don't recall if this was part of the drilling stack and they measured on the way up, or if there was a separate device that was dropped down and pulled back up. The finished diameter of the hole determined how much time they had to get the string of sensors dropped before the refreeze of the hole was narrower than the diameter of the DOMs plus cable. As I recall, this was measured in hours (not days). Any water that was displaced by lowering the string of DOMs down overflowed harmlessly into the bottom of the porous firn. Something they didn't mention is there is a so-called "dust layer" through the array. This is an ancient deposit of volcanic ash. It isn't opaque, but it is noticeable in the raw data.

@teeanahera8949 7 ай бұрын

@@Sembazuruone of the questions about clarity and whether ice is clearer than air etc. obviously ice is much denser than air and therefore not as transparent as air. The real answer as to why they put the experiment here is the one of density, if you’re trying to catch an interaction with a molecule by a neutrino then a more dense medium than air is going to give you a larger number of excitations and the release of a photon. So forget about the line of enquiry concerning “Antarctica’s ice being the most clear thing on Earth.” Air is clearer.

@mikeadler434 7 ай бұрын

👍👍 awesome!

@razvananghel7492 Жыл бұрын

This is so cool

@lovemybabygrands67 2 ай бұрын

So cool literally lol

@user-le7qr5fp9e 3 ай бұрын

Thanks guys ...some good information there..its great that there's no divide between scientists and workers ...I love good camaraderie....just out of curiosity haw much does a DOM cost to make ?

@larryk731 Жыл бұрын

You could make a case that the support personnel are as if not collectively more important by allowing the science staff to do their thing.

@teeanahera8949 7 ай бұрын

A stupid statement. All staff are equally important as they stated.

@m1t2a1 Жыл бұрын

I had to stop for a few minutes to watch a bit of Beverly Hills Cop. Just the beginning. The Pointer Sisters singing Neutron Dance. Probably an anthem for the IceCube people.

@MartinBrabi Жыл бұрын

Kilometer cube of ice ❤️

@hinz1 Жыл бұрын

So, how do you service those, if they really break down, apart from restart? Melt a shaft down again and recover them or consider them as disposable, with sensor array degradation?

@teeanahera8949 7 ай бұрын

Apparently not serviceable or recoverable according to Joe’s comment just above.

@livenationwide3321 7 ай бұрын

Im here to comment before you get millions of views. Awesome videos man!

@zapfanzapfan 10 ай бұрын

Are the telescope, Ice Cube etc powered from the main station or do they have their own generators?

@serraspace96 Жыл бұрын

Really nice video, I just happen to have a spontaneous question : how did an Amazon box get there ?

@MoxieMac0 Жыл бұрын

I was thinking the same thing. Besos even at the South Pole! He rules the world! Hahaha

@homomorphic Жыл бұрын

It came from amazons south pole fulfillment center.

@teeanahera8949 7 ай бұрын

Don’t forget they’re resupplied every Summer so someone brought it there.

@KH-qe5zf 2 жыл бұрын

So what is the "event" used for after they detect one? What analysis do they do? Love josh's t-shirt!

@xFersureMatt Жыл бұрын

In a simple explanation. Once they find one they relay the information to some on earth telescopes that then look in that direction in the sky to see if they can pick up any more information.

@jfbeam Жыл бұрын

They determine where it came from, and telescopes around the globe then look in that spot to see what massive kaboom happened there.

@ML-xh6rd 6 ай бұрын

I have such a crush on Joe. Handsome, smart, engaging personality and I have a thing for bald men, especially one who also has a great voice.

6 ай бұрын

how do they get the drill holes clear again, once the detectors are in? I would expect the freshly formed ice to be less clear, than the ice which surrounds it?

@roachtoasties Ай бұрын

I didn't even think it was even possible to dig 2 km down into the ice.

@JoeSpinstheGlobe Ай бұрын

See my long video on how it was drilled! A lot of really hot water

@roachtoasties Ай бұрын

@@JoeSpinstheGlobe OK. I'll check that one out.

@kamartaj 6 ай бұрын

The DOMs are vacuum sealed, right?

@123UpNorth321 7 ай бұрын

So cool. I could still go there better as a German

@dabay200 Жыл бұрын

how come they don't transmit the data from the neutrino detectors using wires, isn't it harder to separate the LED light from neutrino interactions?

@JoeSpinstheGlobe Жыл бұрын

They are wired! Check out my tour of the icecube detector for more detail. The LEDs are just for the detectors to signal each other for calibration

@quinndavis630 7 ай бұрын

@@JoeSpinstheGlobedo the detectors also transmit?

@teeanahera8949 7 ай бұрын

@@quinndavis630your answer has been given. Not sure how you missed that as it is on the screen in front of you. The sensors transmit their data via a cable.

@quinndavis630 7 ай бұрын

@@teeanahera8949 I understand that the nutrino detectors are reading the flashes of light in the ice, and then feeds that data to the servers and somehow they determine if it came from outside the solar system and all kinds of other information. But I heard that the matrix of those detectors not only act as a receiver, it also as a transmitter of a big jolt of power, like some kind of crazy weapon. The podcast that I heard this on mentioned that they accidentally hit New Zealand with an Earthquake. It was one the Shawn Ryan SRS #66. I don’t know if this guy is full of it or not. What do you think?

@quinndavis630 7 ай бұрын

@@JoeSpinstheGlobe I understand that the nutrino detectors are reading the flashes of light in the ice, and then feeds that data to the servers and somehow they determine if it came from outside the solar system and all kinds of other information. But I heard that the matrix of those detectors not only act as a receiver, it also as a transmitter of a big jolt of power, like some kind of crazy weapon. The podcast that I heard this on mentioned that they accidentally hit New Zealand with an Earthquake. It was one the Shawn Ryan SRS #66. I don’t know if this guy is full of it or not. What do you think?

@steveyoung6787 11 ай бұрын

Have they detected any neutrinos yet ? If so what have they learned

@teeanahera8949 7 ай бұрын

Google it.

@dubious_potat4587 6 ай бұрын

I would work as a dishwasher at the south pole for free just saying

@quinndavis630 7 ай бұрын

Do they transmit? Or only receive?

@teeanahera8949 7 ай бұрын

A detector is not much use if it only receives. See the cable attached to it, the data is transmitted to computers on the surface.

@quinndavis630 7 ай бұрын

@itzybitzyspyder 7 ай бұрын

Um...i was told Icecube would be here.

@-fuk57 7 ай бұрын

I want a sake t shirt.

@terencelarkin5959 11 ай бұрын

This would be more interesting if it were shown what they actually are doing? Maybe you already have and I haven't seen it yet?

@JoeSpinstheGlobe 11 ай бұрын

Yep check out my IceCube video! As for what they DO on a daily basis? Mostly look at a computer screen, make sure data looks okay, and nothing breaks 😂

@patriciamorgan6545 6 ай бұрын

This is one reason why many don't understand science. It doesn't usually translate well to compelling visuals.💻

@barbcoleus 8 ай бұрын

I haven’t heard about neutrinos since the Big Bang theory show

@cazador7131 6 ай бұрын

Being a dishwasher doesn't sound that interesting. But doing it at the south pole makes it sound interesting. I wonder how you even find that as a job opportunity. Its not exactly like you can show up and hand in an application.

@PhillyAvGeek 5 ай бұрын

Amazon boxes 😂

@TripleXXXLady-im5it 7 ай бұрын

Sexy scientists!! Love it!!❤

@steveec9704 7 ай бұрын

So basically your looking for neutrinos being emitted from a close brown dwarf star searching for a timeline on the current depleting Antartica ice sheet

@charlessagide9287 7 ай бұрын

Joe please prove the earth is not flat

@shortview9089 7 ай бұрын

Why You don't show the pillars of the firmament ?

@susannebrunberg4174 7 ай бұрын

We know about the neutrinos, we know that they goes through human bodies all the time, etc etc. I mean this is nothing new... Ok, so you "collect" data of these neutrinos, the question is what do you do with this data? Why do you do it in the first place? What do you want to achieve? No answers to these questions at all. Would had been interesting to know why they do this? What do they really want to know? Wherefrom the neutrinos came from? Or...?

@rilepreldzic7104 7 ай бұрын

Slava Rosja!

@memadmax69 Жыл бұрын

Why does the guy in the orange jump suit look and act like he NEEDS to be in an orange jump suit? ^.^

@JustAboutToEat 7 ай бұрын

Ice cube scientists? Shouldn't you be in L.A or something?

@kayfrenly5460 8 ай бұрын

I am disgusted by the help staff. But we do what we must, until we can replace them with machines.

@BE-fw1lr 4 ай бұрын

The fuck is wrong with you lmao.

@IanSizzler Жыл бұрын

Incredible, thank you

@gibby5335 Жыл бұрын

I love how they pretend it's all fun and normal. It's a weapon.

@JoeSpinstheGlobe Жыл бұрын

Everything else aside... Do you think the US would trust a weapon to a Brit and a German

@Foolian1332 Жыл бұрын

@@JoeSpinstheGlobenot to simply agree or disagree with the alleged capabilities (the user manuals should show that anyway) but the idea of it being US-government-controlled, that seems like a red herring. is it REALLY all under the jurisdiction of a given government organization's oversight? where does the buck stop, and who gets a seat at the table? it's undeniable that Raytheon for example has instruments there, but it's unclear how that factors into the usage of such instruments. this would be a great topic for a video!

@steventhury8366 9 ай бұрын

@@JoeSpinstheGlobeThat's what the Antarctic Treaty is for.