Recently, there have been a couple sightings of the cookie monster wandering around the ship. I know it might sound crazy and you’re probably thinking I’m seeing things, but there really was a person dressed in a cookie monster costume walking around the JR! The first sighting was in the catwalk/core deck and the second sighting was on the “Steel Beach” which is the uppermost deck (above the bridge). The only evidence we have of the cookie monster running around is the video footage that Stephen (one of our co-chiefs) took on the catwalk. Now that I think about it, why did Stephen suddenly decide to take a video of the catwalk that day? (Maybe he’s in on it??)

Whoever it is, they’re also leaving behind a trail of cookie monster stickers everywhere and it’s just fueling my curiosity. I NEED TO KNOW!!

My first guess was either Hannah (our curator) or Kara (our staff scientist)… but it couldn’t have been them because they were with me during the second sighting of the cookie monster! I guess it’s back to the drawing board…

In coring news:

Cores are coming up steadily and we’ve had really good recovery!

Recently I’ve been assisting the physical properties team with running the whole cores on the Whole Round Multi Sensor Logger (WRMSL). Before the cores are split into the working and archive halves (one for destructive sampling, one for description and, clearly, archiving), the whole rounds are run through the WRMSL, which measures the gamma ray attenuation, magnetic susceptibility, and p-wave velocity. (You can take a look at one of our other blogs: Let’s get Physical Properties to learn more about it.)

It’s great that we’ve been having such good recovery… but I have to admit, because the cores are also getting pretty heavy lately, my weak un-toned arms are turning into spaghetti after every shift. But I guess I’m getting a good work out from it. Maybe I’ll surprise my parents with my big guns when I fly back home… haha. 

We’re at our second to last site and it’s becoming too real. It’s almost the end and everything is happening to fast! Less than 2 weeks left and then terra firma and the real world… yikes!

Have your own “mysteries in the lab” stories to tell? Tell us below in the comments or on facebook!

Jisun