Thirty years ago, students from the Auntie Mary Nicoli Elementary School in Aniak were among those who held a statewide election to declare an insect that best represented Alaska. Their school’s winner: The dragonfly. It mauled the mosquito, battered the butterfly and bested the bumblebee. The Aniak students’ results mirrored others across the state: The […]
JIM RIVER — On this cobble bar north of the Arctic Circle, it is a fine day. The sky is a sheet of blue, a breeze wraps us with clean air, a sandpiper mom shrieks over her hatchlings. They are gray-blue puffballs, extra cute and almost invisible amid the stones. In short, this is a […]
Nagoya, Japan – Most people would agree that painful mosquito bites are an especially annoying part of summer. Except perhaps forensic scientists, who can examine human blood from a mosquito’s stomach and match the DNA to determine who was bitten. This technique can help police work out who was at a crime scene and in […]