'Logbook' blog

While working in the office, lab and especially out in the field, WSL researchers make a lot of quirky, remarkable or funny experiences. In our 'Logbook' blog they will post sporadic reports on their experiences.

In their quest for new insights, WSL researchers and technicians sometimes plan unusual and exciting experiments and expeditions. For example, they collect snow samples in the Antarctic, gather driftwood in Greenland, fly chunks of soil including all plants from a mountainside down into a valley by helicopter to simulate climate change, or they roll large concrete boulders downhill and film their tumbling. While we publish the results of this work online, in our magazine DIAGONAL and in scientific publications, up to now only friends and relatives have been able to share the researchers' personal experiences.

In the 'Logbook' blog, researchers will write of their adventures during experiments near or far, talking about anything from difficulties with their sophisticated electronics to how the food tastes in an Antarctic research station. These blog posts are not scientific per se, but help to cast light on what research entails: creativity, passion, patience and massive effort.

Blog posts reflect the personal opinions of their authors.