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  • WHERE I WORK

Something in the air: gathering dust that’s crossed an ocean

Edmund Blades manages an atmospheric observatory at Ragged Point, Barbados.
  1. Amber Dance

    1. Amber Dance is a freelance writer in Los Angeles, California.

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Edmund Blades works at the Barbados Dust Observatory platform, checking exterior instruments on the top.

Edmund Blades is site manager at the University of Miami’s Barbados Atmospheric Chemistry Observatory at Ragged Point, and a microbiologist at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Bridgetown, Barbados. Credit: Micah B. Rubin for Nature

Tourists come here to Ragged Point, at the easternmost part of Barbados, for the view. I climb the 17-metre tower of the University of Miami’s Barbados Atmospheric Chemistry Observatory and collect samples of ash, dust and microorganisms, some of which have come all the way across the Atlantic Ocean. Reddish, iron-rich clouds from Africa reach us every year, usually between June and September, making Barbados hazy. When it’s clear, I enjoy the air and the landscape while making scientific observations — behind me in the photo is the northern coast.

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Nature 600, 562 (2021)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-021-03706-w

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