Latest Research News and Events

UAF Research News
  • Wooden paddles and shafts lie on lichen-covered rocks in a dim cave area.

    Treasures found within a volcanic cave

    April 26, 2024

    Ben Jones suspected he had found something special when he squeezed into a volcanic cave and saw pale wooden poles, some with ends shaped like a willow leaf.

  • Pavlof Volcano

    UAF researchers head to Anchorage for nation's largest seismology conference

    April 25, 2024

    University of Alaska Fairbanks seismologists, staff and students will be in Anchorage next week for the annual national meeting of the Seismological Society of America. Organizers say this year's meeting will be the largest ever for the society, with nearly 1,100 people registered.

  • A rugged glacier and mountains rise above a expanse of gravel studded with old tree stumps.

    Number of Alaska glaciers is everchanging

    April 18, 2024

    A glaciologist once wrote that the number of glaciers in Alaska "is estimated at (greater than) 100,000." That fuzzy number, perhaps written in passive voice for a reason, might be correct. But it depends upon how you count.

  • Two smiling women lean on an outdoor deck railing with a snowy field and rolling hills in the background.

    Waiting for the sun at Poker Flat

    April 12, 2024

    Under a bluebird sky and above a resilient winter snowpack, two sounding rockets point upward, ready to blast through the thickness of our atmosphere to gain a better look at the sun.

  • A painting of two nanuqsaurus dinosaurs with some smaller dinosaurs and the skull of a pachyrhinosaurus in the foreground.

    Dinosaur study challenges Bergmann's rule

    April 05, 2024

    A new study led by scientists at the University of Alaska Fairbanks and the University of Reading calls into question Bergmann's rule, an 1800s-era scientific principle stating that animals in high-latitude, cooler climates tend to be larger than close relatives living in warmer climates.

  • Using both hands, a bearded man in glasses and a knit blue cap holds a tiger paw close to the camera. The paw has large white claws.

    Siberian tiger takes final rest at museum

    April 05, 2024

    It's a safe bet that Aren Gunderson's Toyota Tundra is the only one in Fairbanks that has had its bed filled with a Siberian tiger.

  • A man in a frosty face mask with ski goggles pulled up onto his forehead stands in front of snowy mountains and a bicycle loaded with gear leaning on a sign denoting the location —

    Long winter bike ride aided by naps

    March 29, 2024

    If you could have read that frost-covered fat-biker's mind as he rolled toward McGrath, Alaska, "as if Velcroed to the snow," you might have suspected he was a scientist.

  • Submarine

    Ice experts aid U.S. military in Arctic Ocean exercise

    March 23, 2024

    Finding a good spot for the U.S. military's biennial Operation Ice Camp falls to people at the University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute.

  • A small gray and brown owl sits on a branch next to the shaggy-barked trunk of a spruce tree.

    Boreal owls perform by daylight

    March 21, 2024

    On these March nights, a male boreal owl has been singing from a wooden owl box near our home. The late biologist Dave Klein attached the nest box to a black spruce tree north of the University of Alaska Fairbanks ski trails many years ago.

  • Two women row a boat with a cabin that sports buckets, water jugs and other items strapped to it. The boat rises on a wave while headed toward a golden sunset.

    Marine scientist rows across the Atlantic

    March 14, 2024

    None of the four members of the Salty Science team had any rowing experience. But they had enthusiasm.

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