Africa’s Saharan Desert winds blow across the Atlantic, carrying dust, ash and biological entities hitching an ocean-spanning ride. Since 1996, Edmund Blades has managed the University of Miami’s Barbados Atmospheric Chemistry Observatory and it’s 17-meter tall tower.
Situated on Ragged Point, Barbados’s easternmost tip, the tower’s equipment vacuums up air samples onto awaiting filters. Dr. Blades harvests the filters and tests them in the island’s main laboratory (that he formerly managed).
I pitched and later photographed Dr. Blades for Nature journal’s “Where I Work” section. Here’s a link to the article. This is the 3rd story photographed for Nature. Check out one on Barbados’s Sea Turtle Project and another on the West Indies Central Sugar Cane Breeding Station. And read and see my featured images below. Nature also published images on their Instagram fees here and here.
