Âé¶¹¹ÙÍø news

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  • A glowing Alaska Defense Forum sign sits on a table at the 2025 event at the 8 Star Event Center in Fairbanks. The circular sign features an outline of Alaska over a globe, with conference attendees visible in the background.

    Alaska Defense Forum 2026 focuses on community-military ties

    August 21, 2026

    Leaders in national defense, research and policy will gather with local partners next week in Fairbanks for the annual Alaska Defense Forum organized by the Âé¶¹¹ÙÍø Fairbanks.

  • a person holds a bottle of ash in a lab

    Uncorking the secrets of a tiny bottle of volcanic ash

    August 21, 2026

    What is this ash from Mount Spurr volcano's 1992 eruption made of?

  • A person walks along a storm-battered beach near Quinhagak after ex-Typhoon Merbok hit Western Alaska in 2022.

    Shapes of Western Alaska bays influence local flood danger

    August 20, 2026

    When large storms hit Western Alaska, some areas fare much worse than others. New research studying ex-Typhoon Merbok in September 2022 has found that a complex recipe of topography, tidal influences and seasonal water-level changes contribute to those differences. A Âé¶¹¹ÙÍø Fairbanks-led team determined that the shape of bays and estuaries in the region played a huge role in funneling and amplifying Merbok-driven storm surges.

  • Aerial view of the Âé¶¹¹ÙÍø Fairbanks Arctic Âé¶¹¹ÙÍø Park, showing research and office buildings surrounded by roads, lawns and autumn trees, with forested hills in the distance under a partly cloudy sky.

    Expanded UAF, military partnership looks north

    August 19, 2026

    A newly inked federal agreement will expand the scope of the research partnership between the Âé¶¹¹ÙÍø Fairbanks and the U.S. military. It will also refocus those efforts on the Arctic.

  • A small brown and tan frog rests in a person's hand

    Time capsule: Looking for a few good wood frogs

    August 14, 2026

    The office phone rang while Brian Barnes discussed with me his need for wood frogs. The caller's loudness forced Barnes, a Âé¶¹¹ÙÍø Fairbanks associate professor of zoophysiology, to tilt the phone away from his ear.

  • Aerial view of the coastal Alaska village of Kipnuk severely flooded, with homes on stilts surrounded by brown floodwater, debris-strewn land, and displaced vegetation stretching to the horizon in October 2025.

    Accelerated rates of warming in the Arctic continue

    August 12, 2026

    The American Meteorological Society released its annual report on the global climate this week, with many researchers from the Âé¶¹¹ÙÍø Fairbanks participating.

  • Red currants grow on a bush at the Georgeson Botanical Garden in Fairbanks in July 2026.

    Festival will satisfy currant curiosity

    August 12, 2026

    The fourth annual Far North Currant Festival will celebrate one of Alaska's lesser-known berries from 1-4 p.m. on Aug. 22 at the Georgeson Botanical Garden in Fairbanks. Visitors of all ages can enjoy berry tastings, educational exhibits, hands-on activities and garden tours. Local growers, gardeners, researchers, artists and community experts will be on hand to answer currant questions.

  • Water flowing over a dam.

    UAF leads AI project to strengthen Alaska's rural power grids

    August 11, 2026

    A new energy research project led by the Âé¶¹¹ÙÍø Fairbanks has received a $725,000 award from the U.S. Department of Energy.

  • A close-up of a standing arctic ground squirrel, brown in color, against a blurred olive background

    How do Alaska animals sleep in the summer?

    August 11, 2026

    More than a month after the summer solstice, Fairbanks is still the land of the midnight sun. Joggers are out getting in their late-night runs along Farmers Loop, and we still don't need our headlights after another evening ice cream at Hot Licks.

  • Buildings sit on a ridge with a small lake and hillsides covered with yellowing fall vegetation in the background.

    World War II sparked creation of Geophysical Institute

    July 31, 2026

    As presidential bill signings go, H.R. 6496 wasn’t a particularly exciting one for the nation on July 31, 1946. But it would prove historic for the Âé¶¹¹ÙÍø and the future state.

  • Dipnetters fill the Kenai River in July 2021. An orange buoy (center right) marks one of the hydrophones used to monitor Cook Inlet beluga echolocation clicks

    Belugas absent from Kenai River during peak fishing season

    July 30, 2026

    Endangered Cook Inlet beluga whales, which have traditionally fed in the salmon-rich Kenai River throughout the summer, were absent during times of high human activity in a recent two-year period.

  • Mammoth bones lie in a pit at Langmannersdorf, Austria.

    DNA shows ancient humans killed more female mammoths

    July 30, 2026

    After analyzing the DNA in over 500 ancient mammoth bones, an international research team has determined that ice age humans disproportionately killed female woolly mammoths. The newly published study in the journal Current Biology sampled mammoth bone accumulations associated with ancient human activity and found they were dominated by females.

  • A white pickup drives down a wet, bumpy, paved and striped road with green vegetation to each side and a green tree-covered hillside beyond the approaching corner.

    Deep thawing soil will keep roads rough

    July 23, 2026

    Before being patched with thick black asphalt during recent weeks, the roads across Goldstream Creek's swampy valley bucked my car like a whitewater raft in the Nenana River canyon.

  • A lynx sits in brush, watching the photographer.

    Lynx life near the Haul Road

    July 16, 2026

    From the edge of the Coldfoot truck stop, a pair of yellow eyes in a softly severe, silver face looks out from dense willows and alders.

  • A blueberry bush is loaded with ripe blueberries

    Berry workshops planned in Bethel, Aniak

    July 14, 2026

    The Âé¶¹¹ÙÍø Fairbanks Tribes Extension program and the Rural Alaska Community Action Program are sponsoring berry-related workshops in Bethel and Aniak in early August. Led by Tribes Extension educator Heidi Rader and Chugiak berry grower Josh Smith, the workshops will be held in Bethel on Sunday, Aug. 2, and in Aniak on Aug. 3-4.

  • Two smiling people stand behind a table with pamphlets on it.

    National Science Foundation funds UAF-led critical minerals coalition

    July 14, 2026

    The U.S. National Science Foundation announced today that it will fund a major critical minerals project led by the Âé¶¹¹ÙÍø Fairbanks. The regional collaboration aims to reduce the nation's dependence on imported critical minerals used in everyday products and important to national security.

  • A mosquito stands on the edge of a golden leaf, in a close-up photograph that reveals the insect's

    Time capsule: Mosquito molestation motivates minor migrations

    July 13, 2026

    Enough mosquitoes perch on my tent these nights that they could airlift Jane and me to their favorite bog if they all latched on and lifted at once. Fortunately, mosquitoes don't have very big brains.

  • Bright yellow sunflowers flank a farm field with people walking past in the background.

    Alaska agricultural science on display at 2026 field days

    July 08, 2026

    Âé¶¹¹ÙÍø Fairbanks agricultural and natural resource researchers will give presentations on their work during two field days at Alaska's experiment farms in July. UAF's Institute of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Extension invites farmers, gardeners and community members to tour the fields and farms and learn through presentations, tours and discussions at these free educational events.

  • Two stacked seismograms from Alaska Earthquake Center station NEA2 compare two central Alaska earthquakes. The Sept. 19, 2022, magnitude 4.5 earthquake, top, shows only regular background noise before the main shock, which is typical of earthquakes. The Aug. 20, 2025, magnitude 4.2 earthquake, bottom, shows three components before and during the main shock: a high-frequency foreshock, an unusual very-low-frequency earthquake and the earthquake itself.

    Unusual seismic signal detected in 2025 central Alaska earthquake

    July 07, 2026

    An unusual seismic signal recorded less than a minute before a widely felt magnitude 4.2 earthquake in central Alaska may have given scientists a rare look at how earthquakes begin.

  • People walk between arrays of solar panels, picking berries and taking photos.

    New handbook explores Arctic energy shifts

    July 06, 2026

    A new book featuring the work of multiple Âé¶¹¹ÙÍø Fairbanks researchers maps the complex landscape of energy use and security in the Arctic.

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