On a lonely night at Antarctica’s McMurdo Station, an American scientist conducting research there decided to log on to Tinder, “just for fun.” He had been using the mobile dating app in the States for a few months, and wanted to see if there were any available women out on the loveless tundra. At first, no profiles showed up, but when he expanded the app’s location radius, he found someone: another researcher, working at a deep field camp a 45-minute helicopter ride away from the base station. He swiped right, indicating his interest, and a few minutes later, they matched. Although Tinder doesn’t keep statistics on its users in Antarctica, the company agreed that this was probably the first match on the continent. The McMurdo scientist said that while he initially thought Tinder might be a fun way to spice up Antarctica’s insular, end-of-the-earth hookup scene, budget cuts have decimated the dating pool. A few weeks after the match, the scientist emailed again to say that he had finally met his Tinder match. The interaction was brief — she was leaving Antarctica the next day — but he expects they’ll hang out again before the end of the summer research season.
