Latest Research News and Events
Moose flies flourish in high-summer Alaska
July 22, 2024
While boating down the Yukon River during the hottest summer recorded in Alaska (1915, when Fort Yukon reached 100 degrees Fahrenheit), missionary Hudson Stuck wrote about the wildlife that most bothered his party.
Sand dunes a unique Alaska landscape
July 15, 2024
From a molded seat of sand dug into the western rim of a 5-mile oval of desert, I'm looking out over a sea of tan waves. Spruce spears stick up here and there through the sand.
Mystery of the glass tool kit in the sand
July 04, 2024
From space, the Nogahabara Dunes are a splotch of blond sand about six miles in diameter surrounded by green boreal forest. Located west of the Koyukuk River, the dunes are the site of an uncommon discovery.
Signs of ancient man's best friend on hilltop?
June 27, 2024
On this rock outcrop 30 feet above the gray Tanana River and green hayfields cleared from the forest below, archaeologists have possibly found evidence of the canine companions of early Alaskans.
Insects of Alaska forest humming along
June 21, 2024
Recent long-term studies revealed a three-quarters reduction of insects in parts of Germany and an 80 percent decline of pollinating flies at a field site in Greenland. What's going on with numbers of Alaska insects?
Journey through a sub-Arctic summer night
June 14, 2024
We three friends riding together in a pickup had committed to join together for the AlaskAcross, a 50-mile jaunt on foot from Eagle Summit to the Chena Hot Springs Resort.
Did sea ice help populate the Americas?
June 07, 2024
A team of scientists has proposed winter sea ice as a possible ephemeral highway through and around Alaska and into the New World.
The gardening potential of the Last Frontier
May 30, 2024
More than 100 years ago, a man traveled north on a mission most people thought was ridiculous -- to see if crops would grow in the frozen wasteland known as the Territory of Alaska.
A backyard science expedition, in diapers
May 23, 2024
A fist-size opening in the forest floor exhausted so much air this spring that it built its own chimney of frost. A university researcher -- and her kids -- helped investigate.
LARS to host annual Birthday Bash for new calves
May 23, 2024
The University of Alaska Fairbanks' Large Animal Research Station will introduce its new reindeer and muskox calves at its annual Birthday Bash from noon-4 p.m. on June 1.