{"id":27,"date":"2016-07-06T15:36:24","date_gmt":"2016-07-06T14:36:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/phddigitisation\/?p=27"},"modified":"2016-07-06T15:39:08","modified_gmt":"2016-07-06T14:39:08","slug":"blood-cells-and-blizzards-in-antarctica","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/phddigitisation\/2016\/07\/06\/blood-cells-and-blizzards-in-antarctica\/","title":{"rendered":"Blood Cells and Blizzards in Antarctica"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>When I picked up a thesis entitled \u2018Eosinphils and Stress\u2019 I did not expect to read <img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignright wp-image-29 size-medium\" src=\"http:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/phddigitisation\/files\/2016\/07\/Simpson19590040-e1467802509638-261x300.jpg\" alt=\"Simpson19590040\" width=\"261\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/phddigitisation\/files\/2016\/07\/Simpson19590040-e1467802509638-261x300.jpg 261w, https:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/phddigitisation\/files\/2016\/07\/Simpson19590040-e1467802509638-889x1024.jpg 889w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 261px) 100vw, 261px\" \/>sentences like the following; \u2018The word \u201cAntarctic\u201d has always been associated with cold, death marches, crushed ships, crevasses and so on\u2019. \u00a0This demurely bound 1959 thesis by HW Simpson is a fascinating gem. It is part medical thesis, part travel journal,<br \/>\ndescribing the stresses and daily routines of people living at an Antarctic research base in 1958. Simpson\u2019s aim was to study\u00a0how\u00a0the stress of living and working in Antarctica\u00a0effects eosinophils, a type of white blood cell.<\/p>\n<p>The thesis contains fascinating images of him taking blood samples in a tent, sledge journeys across snowy landscapes, and the living quarters of the researchers. Simpson <img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-33 size-medium\" src=\"http:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/phddigitisation\/files\/2016\/07\/Simpson19590130-e1467802558999-244x300.jpg\" alt=\"Simpson19590130\" width=\"244\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/phddigitisation\/files\/2016\/07\/Simpson19590130-e1467802558999-244x300.jpg 244w, https:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/phddigitisation\/files\/2016\/07\/Simpson19590130-e1467802558999-831x1024.jpg 831w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 244px) 100vw, 244px\" \/>notes certain events that caused a peak in stress, including how one man was lost in a blizzard for eight hours and another drifted out to sea when his boat ran out of petrol, only to be saved by a ship\u2019s helicopter 25 miles off shore. Simpson also studies\u00a0stress caused by more mundane activities. The men took turns cooking and he describes how \u2018It will be readily understood that to be cook for 8-10 men and do one\u2019s main job can be a conside<img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-30 alignright\" src=\"http:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/phddigitisation\/files\/2016\/07\/Simpson19590041-e1467802590256-269x300.jpg\" alt=\"Simpson19590041\" width=\"269\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/phddigitisation\/files\/2016\/07\/Simpson19590041-e1467802590256-269x300.jpg 269w, https:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/phddigitisation\/files\/2016\/07\/Simpson19590041-e1467802590256-920x1024.jpg 920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 269px) 100vw, 269px\" \/>rable strain. Not only must the cook bake bread but he must also help with the washing up and at the end of his week scrub out the kitchen\u2019. This observation is accompanied by a graph entitled \u2018The stress of cooking\u2019, which surprisingly seems to rival the stress of the prospect of a cold and icy death in the midst of a blizzard.<\/p>\n<p>Simpson\u2019s theses encompasses the excitement and adventure of living in Antarctica, but also the mundane realities of what that life necessarily entailed; living in cramped conditions, cooking and cleaning, boredom and lack of society at large. It is a good example of how diverse the theses collection is. A medical thesis such as this one could also be useful to a historian, a sociologist, a scientist or someone interested in travel writing, and there are examples like this one throughout the collection. \u00a0 The thesis will be uploaded with the first batch\u00a0later this month, accessible through <a href=\"https:\/\/www.era.lib.ed.ac.uk\/\">Edinburgh Research Archive<\/a> and also via a link from this page.<\/p>\n<p>Aoife O&#8217;Leary McNeice, Project Digitisation Assistant<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-32 size-large\" src=\"http:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/phddigitisation\/files\/2016\/07\/Simpson19590047-e1467802625888-905x1024.jpg\" alt=\"Simpson19590047\" width=\"584\" height=\"661\" srcset=\"https:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/phddigitisation\/files\/2016\/07\/Simpson19590047-e1467802625888-905x1024.jpg 905w, https:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/phddigitisation\/files\/2016\/07\/Simpson19590047-e1467802625888-265x300.jpg 265w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 584px) 100vw, 584px\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When I picked up a thesis entitled \u2018Eosinphils and Stress\u2019 I did not expect to read sentences like the following; \u2018The word \u201cAntarctic\u201d has always been associated with cold, death marches, crushed ships, crevasses and so on\u2019. \u00a0This demurely bound &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/phddigitisation\/2016\/07\/06\/blood-cells-and-blizzards-in-antarctica\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":119,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[7,8,5,4,3,6],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/phddigitisation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/phddigitisation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/phddigitisation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/phddigitisation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/119"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/phddigitisation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/phddigitisation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40,"href":"https:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/phddigitisation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27\/revisions\/40"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/phddigitisation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/phddigitisation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/phddigitisation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}