Forty years later, another plastic canary has come home to roost. In August, University of Alaska Fairbanks scientist Ben Jones was hiking near Drew Point on the northern coast of Alaska. He noticed pilot Jim Webster walking toward him, while flicking a little yellow Frisbee his way. That yellow plastic disc, about 7 inches round, […]
The logistics of doing research in the Arctic are challenging and complex. Travelling hundreds of miles through tundra, sometimes in temperatures well below freezing, to collect data in one of the most extreme environments in the world requires careful planning. The difficulties could be cut down significantly if better infrastructure was in place. There are […]
Wow, do Alaskans love bats! Last week’s column on little brown bats inspired three times the comments I usually get. People rang in with bat sightings from Nikiski to North Pole; a few offered up their secret spots to scientists who might want to study bats. Jesika Reimer, a bat expert and consultant who lives […]
This artist’s concept shows one of NASA’s Voyager spacecraft entering interstellar space, or the space between stars. This region is dominated by plasma ejected by the death of giant stars millions of years ago. Hotter, sparser plasma fills the environment inside our solar bubble. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech Full image and caption One year ago, on Nov. […]