Image: Cynthia Pflughoeft found this tapeworm at Eielson Air Force Base. Photo by Cynthia Pflughoeft A few times each week, someone carries something dead or alive through the doors of the University of Alaska Museum of the North, hoping an expert can identify it. A couple weeks ago, a woman arrived with a small jar […]
Their bodies cooling with the October air, wood frogs are now snug in leafy blankets all over Alaska. Down there inside those thumb-size frogs, even smaller creatures are hitching a ride. These tiny parasites have the power to make frogs develop up to a dozen extra legs, or no legs at all. Don Larson just […]
With a whisper, middle Alaska is undergoing its biggest change of the year. Billions of snowflakes waft to the dark, wet ground, linking their spiky, broken arms as they collide, settling into a white cushion. The great albedo change of 2019 might be here. Snow is covering this part of Alaska that gets coldest in […]
More than 100 volcanoes pimple the adolescent skin of Alaska, spreading from ear to ear. Some are loud, flamboyant and obnoxious. Others are sneaky and quiet, escaping notice until a pilot sees a gray plume that wasn’t there yesterday. Because people live on the slopes of these volcanoes and thousands more fly through their blast […]