Spear points found in Northwest Alaska hint at intriguing human migrations
Stone spear points from Serpentine Hot Springs on the Seward Peninsula hint that ancient people may have migrated northward between ice sheets from warmer parts of America.
Science
As sea ice melts, agency says harm to walruses not proven
How well walruses cope with less sea ice is at the heart of a legal fight over whether walruses should be listed as a threatened species, giving them an added protection against human encroachments.
The dashed line of the Arctic Circle isn’t necessarily a fixed thing
While all lands and ocean north of the Arctic Circle are by definition what people are talking about when they say Arctic, not all of the Arctic is the same.
Have astronomers found 1st moon outside our solar system?
Astronomers may have found the first moon outside our solar system, a gas behemoth the size of Neptune.
How do you solve weird Alaska fish mysteries? This Sitka woman has a Facebook group for that.
The group has become a hub for photos and conversations about Alaska’s marine creatures -- the unusual, the slimy and the sometimes grotesque.
A geophysicist reflects on the remarkable opportunities Alaska’s volcanoes and earthquakes provided
Jeff Freymueller, leaving for a new job Outside after 23 years, had the foresight and good luck to start using GPS satellites before he came to Alaska.
This hissing, bubbling Alaska lake is frightening scientists
The first time Katey Walter Anthony saw Esieh Lake in the western Brooks Range, she was afraid it might explode. Across the Arctic, lakes are leaking dangerous greenhouse gases.
Here’s how Alaska beetles survive unearthly temperatures – and why that might help humans
The proteins created by the red flat bark beetle fascinate scientists because they are an ingredient of an all-natural antifreeze liquid, a version of which might someday be used to cool human organs to preserve them.
Warmer Arctic waters attract surprising visitors: clams, fish and whales
Ice in the north Bering Sea is diminishing, researchers aboard a Coast Guard ship report.
A northern sense of place
At the Denali Science School, a three-day program put on by National Park Service rangers and Alaska Geographic instructors, Fairbanks sixth-graders are learning more about the oversized peninsula on which they live.
By 1900, no musk oxen were left in Alaska. Their journey back was from Greenland to Nunivak Island, via New Jersey
In 1930, members of the U.S. Congress gave scientists $40,000 to acquire a herd of musk oxen for introduction into Alaska. And there began an 8,000-mile adventure.
One of biggest tsunamis ever recorded was set off in Alaska by a melting glacier
A new study bluntly calls the 2015 event “a hazard occasioned by climate change.” The wave topped 600 feet.
State reroutes Dalton Highway to dodge migrating ‘blob’
Engineers moved the road to avoid a giant mass of frozen debris sliding downhill.
Arctic ground squirrels go to hibernate early, and that’s part of why they’re supercool
Using the magic trick of supercooling, ground squirrels avoid the North Slope’s winter reality — no light, no food, constant cold — for up to three-quarters of the year.
HAARP opens its doors to the public, but some minds prove hard to change
Three years after the Air Force transferred ownership of HAARP -- the High-frequency Active Auroral Research Program -- to the University of Alaska Fairbanks, conspiracy theories remain.
10 million-year-old tapir fossil the first of its kind in Alaska
Until now, no one had found fossilized remains of the mammals that roamed the rich prehistoric ecosystems here millions of years ago.
On the menu for northern snowshoe hares: Dirt
“I have thousands and thousands of photos of hares eating soil in this one little spot,” said a biologist and cartographer with the National Park Service.
This scientist has been tracking the peregrine falcon’s recovery in Alaska over nearly 5 decades
Since 1973, biologist Skip Ambrose has made the same 180-mile trip up the Yukon River to observe peregrine falcon nests.
Traveling Alaska’s biggest river by canoe
Canoe trip from Eagle to Circle cuts through a fascinating 170-mile section of the Yukon River's 2,000-mile run to the Bering Sea.