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Ned Rozell and his dog Cora move uphill on a trip in the White Mountains National Recreation Area in January 2026. Photo courtesy Chris Swingley

Life

Time to hit the trail westward

Yup, it’s 30 below this morning, March 19. Just like it was last week. Back then, I wrote…

Rick Thoman of the Alaska Center for Climate Assessment and Preparedness created this Alaska-centric graphic of how cold Alaska has been compared to long-term records. “Note that the bulls-eye of cold is exactly over our town,” he wrote. Photo courtesy Rick Thoman

Columnists

Alaska writer buckling under pressure

Thirty below again this morning. OK then. Time to reach for the baseball bat and fine-tune the weather…

Mice-like voles have pushed up vent holes that connect to their subnivean worlds here at Creamer’s Field Migratory Waterfowl Refuge. Photo courtesy Mike Taras

Columnists

Marten visits are a glimpse into mystery

A trapper fresh out of the Cosna River country in Interior Alaska said he can’t believe how many…

Photo courtesy Matt Druckenmiller Hajo Eicken walks the sea ice off the town of Utqiagvik in about 2010.

Columnists

The full circling of a northern career

Hajo Eicken had “everything I could ever ask for” in his former career at a German institute. Well,…

In 2021, the late Shiloh Schulte holds a whimbrel that nested above the Katakturuk River in northern Alaska. Photo courtesy Kirsti Carr

Opinion

Alaska lovebirds go their own way

During a month of endless summer light, a mated pair of shorebirds teaches their four chicks how to…

Biologist Jordan Pruszenski measures an anesthetized bear during May 2025. Biologists take measurements and samples before attaching a satellite/video collar to the bear’s neck. Photo courtesy Alaska Department of Fish and Game

Opinion

The scent of barren ground grizzly

Unlike most of us, Jordan Pruszenski has held in her arms the following wild animals: wolves, caribou, beavers,…

Northern sea ice, such as this surrounding the community of Kivalina, has declined dramatically in area and thickness over the last few decades. Photo courtesy Ned Rozell

Opinion

20 years of Arctic report cards

Twenty years have passed since scientists released the first version of the Arctic Report Card, now a staple…

Photo courtesy of the UAF Geophysical Institute Carl Benson pauses during one of his traverses of Greenland in 1953, when he was 25.

Opinion

Carl Benson embodied the far North

Carl Benson’s last winter on Earth featured 32 consecutive days during which temperatures in his chosen town did…

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News

Former refuge manager speaks on loving the land

Robin West presented his talk, “Looking Back, Looking Forward,” in Soldotna on Tuesday evening.

Six-foot-six Tage Thompson of the Buffalo Sabres possesses one of the fastest slap shots in the modern game. Photo courtesy Ned Rozell

Opinion

The physics of skating and slap shots

When two NHL hockey players collide, their pads and muscles can absorb enough energy to power a 100-watt…

Pam Groves of the University of Alaska Fairbanks looks at bones of ancient creatures she has gathered over the years from northern rivers. The remains here include musk oxen, steppe bison and mammoth. Photo courtesy Ned Rozell

Opinion

What killed the world’s giants?

Most of the large animals that have walked the surface of Earth are no longer here. Why?

A 9-year-old female wolf with a satellite collar limps alongside the highway near Denali National Park in February 2019. Photo courtesy Ned Rozell

Opinion

The Riley Creek pack’s sole survivor

As I was driving down the highway one spring day eight years ago, I saw a shaggy, gray-black…

UAF seismologist Carl Tape, age 9, stands outside on his family’s Fairbanks deck at minus 50 degrees F on Jan. 23, 1989. “Carl was ahead of his time,” said Rick Thoman. “Now people pose in front of the UAF sign.” Photo courtesy Walt Tape

Opinion

Fuzzy memories of a real Alaska cold snap

More than 35 years have ticked away since I turned my pickup left onto a North Pole road…

Seismologist Carl Tape stands at the site of Dome City in summer 2025. Dome City ghosted out many years ago, but not before miners unearthed many fossils, some of which they donated to the University of Alaska. Photo courtesy Ned Rozell

Opinion

A whale of a mammoth tale

Matthew Wooller couldn’t believe his ears after a California researcher rang his cellphone recently.

A 1958 earthquake on the Fairweather Fault that passes through Lituya Bay shook a mountaintop into the water and produced a wave that reached 1,740 feet on the hillside in the background, shearing off rainforest spruce trees. Photo courtesy Ned Rozell

Opinion

A wrinkle beneath the icy face of Alaska

A few days ago, the forces beneath Alaska rattled people within a 500-mile radius: A magnitude 7 earthquake…

This figure shows the approximately 2,700 earthquakes that occurred in Southcentral Alaska between Sept. 10 and Nov. 12, 2025. Also shown are the locations of the two research sites in Homer and Kodiak. Figure by Cade Quigley

Opinion

The people behind earthquake early warning

Alders, alders, everywhere.

Patricia Ann Davis drew this illustration of dancing wires affected by air movement. From the book “Alaska Science Nuggets” by Neil Davis

Opinion

The mystery of the dancing wires

In this quiet, peaceful time of year, with all the noisy birds flown south and all the scary…

The research vessel Sikuliaq navigates Resurrection Bay on the way to its homeport at the Seward Marine Center in 2020. Photo courtesy of Sarah Spanos

News

Seward-based research vessel sets sail for Antarctica

The Sikuliaq will support three research projects starting in early January.

Quinhagak resident Sarah Brown holds a mask attachment she found on the beach on Oct. 24, 2025. This item might represent a hand or fin of an animal or spirit being. Photo courtesy Alice Bailey

Opinion

Faces on a beach in Southwest Alaska

Walking a storm-scoured Alaska beach, archaeologist Rick Knecht knelt to pick up a wooden figurine the size of…

“Hair ice” grows from the forest floor in Fairbanks, Alaska. Photo courtesy of Ned Rozell

Opinion

‘Hair ice’ enlivens an extended fall in Interior Alaska

Just when you thought you’d seen everything in the boreal forest, a reader points out white whiskers sprouting…