Far-Flung Postcards is a weekly collection by which NPR’s worldwide workforce shares moments from their lives and work around the globe.
“What do you suppose would look higher: pink or inexperienced?”
The bubblegum hue received. A scientist from the Swiss public college ETH Zurich nodded, pulling out a bottle of pink dye to launch from the highest of the Rhône Glacier within the Swiss Alps.
Turning the rivulet flowing down a melting glacier right into a bright-pink stream was the least scientific take a look at carried out this present day. It was supposed as a visible support for journalists like me accompanying the workforce of scientists measuring the tempo at which water flows off this glacier. The consequence: Faster than ever.
On the August day I joined the workforce, we have been surrounded by a 360-degree aural panorama of working water. A few of these currents have been coming from beneath the ice we gingerly trekked on, testing every step with a little bit weight in order that we did not fall by one of many dozens of large cracks. Because the workforce took turns leaping over one, I used to be reminded of the packing checklist we have been emailed earlier than the journey — which included “Ice choose (Eispickel) in case of a slip right into a crevasse.”
Thankfully, none of us had to make use of our Eispickel on this specific day. However we did use our cameras after the workforce poured the bottle of pink resolution right into a glacial stream — briefly turning it into an much more unnatural show than the rapidly vanishing glacier itself.
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