When GigaScience first announced that the polar bear genome had been sequenced, I tried to download and make use of >13 terabytes of data that was made available, but had no idea how. My laptop needed a serious power-up.

WHY SO MANY BITS AND BYTES? To understand, try tackling this recipe. There's a lot more to this, but I've condensed for easier-digestion.



Ingredients:
- lots of money
- polar bear
- next-generation sequencing (DNA-translating) technology
- the best goddamned computer ever known to man

1. Collect high-quality samples from a polar bear without getting eaten. Isolate DNA.
2. Load DNA into a next-generation sequencer to generate fragments, or "reads" of genetic code that correspond to your DNA. The genome (all DNA) is a LONG code made up of billions of 4 unique units/"letters"/or bases ( A, T, G, and C). DNA also has 2 (very long) strands: T on one strand will always pair with A on the other, and G always with C. Since DNA is so long, the sequencer chops the DNA up into tiny segments and, by "reading" individual strands, builds complementary units to replicate the fragments. Each of the 4 units, during replication, emits a unique signal that can then be detected to determine which base (or sequences) make up the fragments.
3. Align/assemble the overlapping "reads" until you have the whole genome in sequence.
4. Align the genome to other genomes that have already been sequenced, especially familiar (e.g., human) ones, where we know what codes for what (what combination of A, T, G, C translates into what trait/ behaviour). 

These guys recently perfected this recipe. Using 79 polar bears and 10 brown bears, they found that, after a recent split of brown bear lineages (large populations of individuals/genomes that changed so much over time they became more and more different), one gave rise to the polar bear (genome). Regions of the polar bear genome that were targets of positive selection (most important for survival and thus persist in the genome today) correspond to genes that regulate heart disease, break-down/storage of fat and color pigmentation (in humans). 

Given the Kentucky Fried polar bear diet--they gorge on seal fat and whale blubber to keep their bellies full for long periods of time--it's no surprise that they've found a loophole to eat themselves to the other side without heart break. As for genes coding for color...well how stealthy could a beastly arctic predator be now if he was still brown in a world of white?

His response was short: "It's natural."

When I was a child my father used to catch frogs and bring them home to me for an evening before letting them go the next day (SPOILER ALERT: I soon realized why prolonged visits were not sustainable). I remember looking forward to the white bucket he'd leave for me in the backyard, filled with new playmates.

One day, I decided these creatures deserved environmental enrichment and that a white bucket of water was no place for a wildling. I scooped one lucky contender up and placed him in a salad bowl (sorry fam, we still eat out of this bowl) filling it with all sorts of hand-picked leaves, berries and twigs that I could find (is it possible to pick without hands though?). I was called in for dinner, and left buddy in his new home on a picnic bench for a short break. When I returned, he was lifeless. Something that I couldn't (and still can't) describe that once glowed within him was gone.

So often we think we know what is best for someone, some thing, some animal, when we don't know anything at all. Our lack of wisdom and/or experience can sometimes cause more harm than our original intention--to do the opposite.

A wise man once asked me, "When a dog or a cat approaches you, what do you do? When you hold a bird in the palm of your hand, what do you feel?"

When a dog or cat approaches you, you touch it. When you hold a live bird (or frog) in your hand, you feel something--connected, beautiful, special...whatever you want to call it. These things happen and you can't explain why or how, but you just know this is what you do.

It's natural.

How to make him flee, screaming like a girl:

1. Write your name in the snow using Naptha
2. All eyes on him if/ when he arrives (if you're near Arviat it won't take long)
3. Send your name in flames and bask in the heat of glory 

Caution: Based on recommendation. They are not all born the same. If you lose a limb over this you need to work on--you should've worked on--your calligraphy skills.

A couple of snow troopers showed me how to clean a wampa hide in sea water (FYI, wampas are legally harvested based on an informed quota system and usually involves collaborations with the Old Republic, where samples are collected as an ongoing monitoring program).

It's like crushing grapes.

The hide is then tied to the back of a snowspeeder, hauled out across the ice, fleshed, and dried. The fleshing out process alone takes about 5-9 hours (longer for a better hide) with no breaks; rotting meat in room temperature for extended hours would not be a good look. 

A tooth is also extracted so that the wampa can be aged. 

It's like counting tree rings.

When I left Kimmirut today I thought I was going to die. I'd much rather break my back on a kamotik and have my face slapped for 5 hours by Frosty than fly in a Twin Otter again; you really don't know what flying in turbulence feels like until you're being blasted through the air in a sardine can.

Oh, and a few things about Kimmirut:
- It looks like a heel ("Kimmirut").
- It has The Bay (est. 1909, along with a church of the same age).
- It's wind will keep you inside, but you can always sew pualuks and watch Star Wars to pass time.
- It's tides shift daily. You can hear the ice cracking and shifting. Maker's Mark on the rocks.

I've recently pocketed a few anti-bear scare tactics in the Elder vs. Polar Bear feat:

- Make noises louder than they can hear their own jaws click. Blowing your nose will gross them out.

- Run downhill; they are expert scaffolders and tend to tumble down hills as the ambition in their gallopy hind legs outweighs the capacity of their front feet.

- Aim for the rump. They have sensitive bums.


If you are still unsuccessful, I'm sure one can always resort to the fail-safe:
Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A, select, start.

There is a god.

If you fill a ziplock bag of polar bear meat with water and freeze it outside (versus your refrigerator), it'll keep longer. The outside will also freeze your hair within seconds, but I don't know if that'll keep it long.

I flew in the smallest plane imaginable today and landed on a runway that inclined onto a mountain.

Hello Kimmirut, you make my heart beat but I still haven't gotten over Arctic Bay. I don't know if I ever will.

I've got a fever and this cabin is made of sand.

The thing about "please come see me everybody" radio broadcasts is that you can't leave, because you never know when they'll come. Fortunately the 4 hours it's taken me to transcribe a single 20 minute interview is keeping me busy.

Or sending me into the whims of Vertigo ;)

I managed to sneak away for an hour yesterday to visit the Inuujaq school, to teach the students about genetics and polar bear research. What I didn't expect was that the students (gr10-12) would teach me a heck of a lot more than I them. Two of the students had previously caught a polar bear--my 20+ years of schooling could never bring me even an arm's length (and I have really long arms) close to that sort of experience.

The interviews with hunters here (so far) have taught me even more. There are things about bears that you can't read in a paper/ article/ book, see on TV, or even study in a lab, however many hours you spend doing it. Even 1, 2, 3 weeks living in the high arctic won't cut it. The knowledge and experience that some community members have have taken a lifetime to accumulate; a couple of interviews and audiotapes--again--could never bring one even a (Super-Stretch Armstrong) arm's length close to becoming an expert.

In Neil Gaiman's 9th volume of The Sandman (The Kindly Ones), Rose Walker writes:

“I've been making a list of the things they don't teach you at school. They don't teach you how to love somebody. They don't teach you how to be famous. They don't teach you how to be rich or how to be poor. They don't teach you how to walk away from someone you don't love any longer. They don't teach you how to know what's going on in someone else's mind. They don't teach you what to say to someone who's dying. They don't teach you anything worth knowing.”

Touché, Neil not-so-gay Man.

Learned 2 things in the last 24 hours:

1. Arctic Bay is in the same time zone as Toronto, and Google is dead wrong. I've been living in the past since I got here and the only way I'll feel better is if Google grants me unlimited access to the slides and ball pits at their headquarters, airfare inclusive.

2. I am allowed to use the fridge in the inn that I am staying at. I no longer have to lean food up against my window to keep it cold.

The folks at USGS (Pagano et al. 2010) recently published a paper evaluating remote biopsy-darting as a less invasive/ demanding, cheaper, and safer alternative to conventional mark-recapture surveys of polar bears. This is not unlike what the GN has also been up to.This technique involves shooting bears with darts and dyes (to avoid re-sampling) to obtain hair, skin, and adipose (fat) tissue. Once a bear is spotted and targeted, the darts fall off of the individuals sampled (who presumably resume their ways) and are then retrieved---all in less than 10 minutes. The samples obtained from these darts could provide >90% success rates in genotyping (identifying) and genetically sexing individual bears; adipose tissues also provide fatty acid signatures for indicators of body condition/ health. This novel method of sampling has direct implications for the appeal of telomeric ageing if we are able to accurately and/or reliably age bears from biopsy tissues.