Tips on Living in Isolation

Marine science researchers in Carolina’s College of Arts & Sciences have worked in many of the world’s most remote spaces: Antarctica’s McMurdo Dry Valleys, Alaskan glaciers, Arctic icebreaker research vessels and even an underwater research lab.

The lessons researchers learned while working in cramped quarters and without the comforts of home may be helpful to people adjusting to life in COVID-19 quarantine.

Associate Professor Emily Eidam has done a variety of fieldwork as a seagoing oceanographer in remote parts of Vietnam, Alaska and the Arctic, and shared tips on empathy and celebrating victories. 

Chris Martens, William B. Aycock Distinguished Professor of Marine Sciences, is one of a few researchers who have spent time living and working at the Aquarius Reef Base, the world’s only underwater research station. He shared tips on why it is important to go outside, set a schedule and have something to look forward to. 

Distinguished Professor Hans Paerl got involved in a National Science Foundation project in the 1990s that led him to Antarctica with a small research team. He spent months studying microbes in ice, and living in a single-person tent in temperatures as cold as -35 degrees Fahrenheit. Paerl gave advice on finding ways to have fun, stay active and explore safely. 

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