this professor has a five year research grant from the us national science foundation to study snow algae and how it affects the rate that snow melts, but she can't spent five years straight in antarctica so joining a trip like this works well for her. i am able to collect some samples and data for my research and i can use of the facilities on the ship, such as the microscopes, to look at the samples and also work with the tourists to show them what i am sampling in the snow. most of the ship's expedition crew also have science backgrounds and help run citizen science projects for the passengers. ..a little bubble of water on top and no air. studying the microscopic phytoplankton in the water helps monitor the effects of global warning. samples are packed up and sent off to be analysed by researchers who can't get here themselves. coming to places like antarctica