We sometimes call one member of our four-person research team “Job.” This isn’t his name, but since the rest of us have names that begin with the letter ‘J,’ he felt he needed to conform. In any case he is never really alone, since our PI (Primary Investigator), and technically the fifth member of the team, shares his given name: Robert.

This morning, for the second time in a week, we drove to the airport for check-in and then went out to breakfast while we waited for the plane to show up. For the second time this week, a lovable member of the team who happens to be named Robert was taken away from us by Alaska Airlines.

The first Robert, Bob, of course isn’t coming back until August… the 14th, I believe. The second, “Job,” will be back in time to celebrate the Fourth with us. He is attending NICOP (the Ninth International Conference on Permafrost) at the University of Alaska Fairbanks and giving a fifteen minute talk on… permafrost.

Although I’m sure everyone knows all about it (…), arctic research is kind of a big deal this year. The NICOP website explains in this succinct fashion:

This Ninth International Conference on Permafrost (NICOP) marks the 25th anniversary of the formation of the IPA and the Fourth ICOP (1983), both having taken place at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. The fourth International Polar Year (IPY) will be celebrated in 2008, as will the 50th anniversary of the International Geophysical Year (IGY), and the 125th anniversary of the first International Polar Year (IPY). Both the International Union of Geological Sciences and the International Geographical Union, IPA parent organizations, will hold their international congresses in August 2008. The International Year of Planet Earth will also be celebrated in 2008. Taken together, summer 2008 represents a special time to celebrate our national and international permafrost heritage.

As you can see by the sheer number of acronyms, it’s kind of a big deal.

To some people, anyway. Others, like the two principal authors on the paper Job is presenting, cannot be bothered to attend. Thus the presentation duties fall to our illustrious companion. He did get co-author on a published scientific paper, however, at the ripe old age of twenty-one, so don’t bother feeling sorry for him.

The basic question of the paper is this: given that warming increases the thickness of tundra vegetation (this is proved in other of Bob’s papers), will the increased vegetation layer insulate the soils, resulting in cooler soil temperatures, or will warming of the air also warm soil temperatures? Job chose this riveting question as his independent study project while in Barrow last year, though I’m sure I’ve managed to explain it incorrectly (you’ll tell me what I messed up on, won’t you, Jobby?). He helped install the data collectors and analyze the data, so though Bob wrote the paper, Job gets his name on it and is officially as Scientist as they come. We are very proud of him!

Some readers may have conjectured that I, as a member of the research team, am also required to have an independent study project. By golly, you’re right, and I do… but I choose to explain it at another time when I have something substantial to say on the subject. Besides, I have to go meet my two remaining J Crew members and watch the Discovery Channel. This is a step up from last night, when the entertainment was Putting On Coats And Walking Into A Very Cold Freezer. I’m not even kidding. It was forty below in there.

Oh! And I plum forgot to tell the answer to the paper! If I followed the presentation correctly, and, looking back, it appears that I did not (though I saw it four times), the answer is: It Depends.