Aren Gunderson parks his truck, steps out and strips off his sweatshirt. “I always take off my outer clothing layer,” says the caretaker of the University of Alaska Museum’s colony of flesh-eating beetles. “The stink will stay with you.” Gunderson, mammal collection manager at the museum, approaches a weathered set of buildings. He swings open […]
On a clear day last spring, fire sizzled on water at Poker Flat Research Range in the Chatanika River valley. There, scientists were spilling crude oil in a manmade water basin and torching it from above. A series of similar test burns were part of a team effort between university scientists and researchers with the […]
While talking with two friends just inside a university entrance-way, I saw a creature scampering in our direction just outside the glass doors. My first though was of a misdirected red squirrel running on the concrete. But this guy was longer, and bounded like a Slinky. A weasel! We went outside and staked out the […]
Dave Klein was 47 when he kicked into a scree slope in Atigun Canyon and saw something unusual in the rocks below. He reached down and picked up a three-inch wedge of bone or antler that had been worked into points on each end. One half of it had notched barbs. Klein was 88 when […]