Detecting Cosmic Messengers at the South Pole with Sarah Bouckoms

Explorer Sarah Bouckoms is a scientist and educator who has worked in Antarctica since 2008. This Antarctic summer, she’s fulfilling a lifelong dream by traveling to the U.S. National Science Foundation-funded IceCube Neutrino Observatory at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station in Antarctica to work on the IceCube Upgrade–and she’s taking us with her! From November 2025 through February 2026, Sarah will show us how the IceCube Neutrino Observatory detects neutrinos through a network of over 5,000 individual light sensors that have been installed in the Antarctic ice sheet. What are neutrinos, what can they tell us about the universe, and what’s it like to live and work at the South Pole?