Note: This time capsule was written by Carla Helfferich on Feb. 15, 1989, soon after the legendary January 1989 cold snap broke. For six straight days in late January that year, Fairbanks’ high temperature stayed at or below minus 40. On Jan. 25, temperatures briefly rose to a balmy 31 below zero before dropping to […]
Antarctic blue whales appear to be creeping back from the brink of extinction after 50 years of protection. A new study estimates the total population at 4,018, up from 418 after the last reported whale catch in 1973. Still, their population pales in comparison to pre-whaling levels, when hundreds of thousands of blue whales swam […]
More than three decades ago, a team from the University of Alaska Fairbanks achieved a remarkable feat. Using discarded equipment, hot water and endless ingenuity, they melted holes over a mile deep into the Antarctic ice sheet. Earlier this month, those efforts led to another dazzling accomplishment — a Nobel Prize. Francis Halzen, a physicist […]
Experiments on two rockets that launched into the night from Poker Flat Research Range on Monday and Wednesday will reveal more about how stars influence our galaxy. A NASA mission to study how cosmic dust from dying stars forms launched from Poker Flat at 9:30 p.m. Wednesday. A University of Colorado Boulder mission to learn […]