in antarctica. the pursuit of pure science. it ain't pretty. it looks like a mining camp, but look closely and you notice things like the total absence of liter, not a single cigarette butt. it's one of the most carefully regulated communities on the planet, and it is a community. a tightly knit, highly organized, very odd subculture of just under 1,000 people in summer and 150 in winter, all working towards the same thing in this most remote, barren, yet stunningly beautiful continent. work is seasonal in mcmurdo and it's the type of place that demands a very special kind of individual. everyone is interdependent and comes to realize that very quickly. the scientists, known in local parlance as beakers, depend absolutely on a support community of specialists like the carps, or carpenters, heavy equipment operators, the fuelies, riggers, pilots, wasties, cooks.