Speculations

The last time I extensively speculated on something in this column--a guess about how Naptowne, Alaska, was first named--many of us learned a bit of Alaskan history as various readers corresponded to set the facts straight. Perhaps this experience serves as a warning not to speculate too much here. Still, a request by News-Miner editor Kent Sturgis to prepare a special column in honor of this Weekender's emphasis on science tempts me into speculation again.

Why is a science-related column of this type being carried by 13 newspapers in Alaska and Canada? Could it be that the editors of these newspapers know that their readership is made up of people who are more interested in and aware of their surroundings than many who live farther south? Sometimes this awareness exists because many northerners wrest their living from the land, the sea or the air and consequently must astutely observe to succeed and sometimes even to survive.

Not everyone in Alaska or the Yukon earns a living from outdoor activities such as fishing, mining, transportation, timbering or farming. However, many employed in other areas often take vacations that involve pitting themselves against rivers, mountains, mosquitoes or other elements of the north. So it seems that most here have a reason to be interested in the earth and how it functions. Those who are motivated by their own interest to observe their surroundings tend to be good observers.

I first became aware of how expert Alaskans and Yukoners can be as observers of natural events when I investigated major earthquakes that occurred in 1958 near Huslia and Yakutat. A great deal of the information we assembled actually came from bush pilots, villagers, miners, fishermen and trappers who felt the earthquakes or saw their effects. As a supposedly trained scientist, I was, in this era, humbled more than once by having my observational capabilities outclassed by a person without formal education who stood beside me and saw more than I.

But back to the column--many of the articles that appear here are in response to a comment or question resulting from someone else's experience or observation. Many of the 270 articles that have been written since this column's beginning in the Daily News- Miner in March 1976 were prepared in consequence of reader interest. The variety of topics covered also has been influenced by the interests of the thirty plus people who have contributed articles.

Here at the University of Alaska there is a truly remarkable and easily accessible wealth of scientific expertise in almost every subject dealing with northern regions. That asset is used again and again, often without acknowledgment, in preparing these columns.

But the specialists have no corner on science in Alaska. It seems that the majority of northerners are interested in expanding their knowledge obtained by study and practice; according to Webster, that is the definition of science. We often forget in this day of sophistication wherein scientists are usually pictured beside fancy, complicated instruments, that much of science is accomplished by using the eyes, ears and fingers for observational tools and the human brain as an interpreting computer. Everyone has the capability to observe and interpret what goes on around him or her. One gets the impression that northerners are more interested in employing these capabilities than most.

Along this line, one of my favored stories is about the observation and interpretation made in 1969 by an elderly Athabascan woman at Dot Lake. She watched a barium cloud released from a rocket that had been launched from the University's Poker Flat rocket range near Fairbanks. High in the sky over her head, she saw the bright multi- colored barium release cloud suddenly appear, expand circularly and then fade away.

"I know what that was," she said, "It was God opening up a hole from heaven so he could look down from the sky and see the people here on earth. He didn't like what he saw, so he closed the hole back up again." One may quibble with the woman's conclusion, but anyone who has seen a barium release can easily understand why she might interpret it that way.

Interpretations and speculations are often wrong, but if one is to make progress in understanding, it usually is necessary to speculate a bit.

Hopefully, this column provides the reader with the foundation material upon which to form his own conclusions and speculations.