By Ned Rozell

While running through Bicentennial Park in Anchorage, biologist Jessy Coltrane spotted a porcupine in a birch tree. On her runs on days following, she saw it again and again, in good weather and bad. Over time, she knew which Alaska creature she wanted to study.

By Ned Rozell

SAN FRANCISCO — For the thirteenth straight year, I’m happy to be spending one week of December here, at the Fall Meeting of the American Geophysical Union, where more than 15,000 scientists gather for a week to discuss the latest news of the world. 

Here are a few items from the first two days:

By Ned Rozell

Alfred Brooks was a geologist who traveled thousands of miles in Alaska and left his name on the state’s northernmost mountain range. Twenty years before his death in 1924, he also left behind a summary of what Alaska was like over a century ago, when “large areas (were) still practically unexplored.”

In the month of October faculty, staff and students of the Geophysical Institute collected 628 pounds of non-perishable food items and $700 in monetary donations for the Fairbanks Community Food Bank. 

Graduate students are needed to fill positions at the University of Alaska Fairbanks (applicants for Ph.D. program preferred, but strong applications for M.S. program will be considered, also for topics in sea-ice research other than those outlined below):

A BBC Nature report released today features two professors from the Geophysical Institute's Space Physics and Aeronomy group -- Mark Conde and Dirk Lummerzheim. Both scientists are quoted in the story that relays how sounding rockets allow researchers to better understand the aurora and dynamics of the upper atmosphere.

Access "The greatest light show on Earth" here.