Anchorage Daily News

NED ROZELL

Alaska bird population has unique strategies

One of my favorite lectures so far in 2008 was by Susan Sharbaugh, senior scientist at the Alaska Bird Observatory and steadfast Seattle Mariners fan.

Reading the North

New books of interest to Alaskans

NED ROZELL

Rat Island may be due for a name change

Far off in the western Aleutians, Rat Island is closer to Hokkaido, Japan, than it is to Anchorage. About the size of Homer, Rat Island is green and stormy, and prone to very large earthquakes.

ART BEAT

Alaskans get attention in New York and Los Angeles

Among the many young Alaskans hoping to make a go of the entertainment industry Outside, two popped up on the radar last week.

Reading the North

New books of interest to Alaskans

NED ROZELL

Mortgage is paid on flood control work in Fairbanks

It is gray and raining and chilly and I want some coffee. I'm driving south from Fairbanks, wondering when I have seen a wetter few weeks in Interior Alaska. No past episode is coming to mind.

Reading the North

New books of interest to Alaskans

James Cook timeline

Important dates in the life of the explorer

Cook's tour of Alaska

Monday marks 230 years since Capt. James Cook jammed his two wood-hulled, ships into the pack ice of the Arctic Ocean just north of Icy Cape. He had pushed farther north along America's west coast than any European had ever sailed.

PDF: Names that remain

James Cook timeline

NED ROZELL

Experts seek out the coldest ice worms

Ice worms, so small and wispy that several would fit on your fingertip, live on warmish glaciers, eating algae and slithering toward the few spots in the narrow range of temperature they can endure.

Reading the North

New books of interest to Alaskans

Reading the North

New books of interest to Alaskans

140-year-old ship artifacts surface near Homer

Pratt Museum visitors got a look at what’s left of a hairbrush abandoned by one of four hopeful women aboard the Torrent 140 years ago when it sank off Port Graham. The dishes the 135 travelers ate from — now shards of china — and surviving ship braces made of bronze offer new clues to Alaska’s early American years.

NED ROZELL

Engineers conquered permafrost

In 1973, Elden Johnson was a young engineer working on one of the most ambitious and uncertain projects in the world -- an 800-mile steel pipeline that carried warm oil over frozen ground.

Reading the North

New books of interest to Alaskans

NED ROZELL

Northerners may be prone to diabetes

Diabetes seems to afflict more northerners than those living near the equator, making some researchers think exposure to sunlight plays a role in the disease.

Reading the North

New books of interest to Alaskans

Reading the North

New books of interest to Alaskans

Reading the North

New books of interest to Alaskans

NED ROZELL

Roaring 80s, 90s are long overdue

My dad never liked the heat. On humid days in upstate New York, he'd ride out hot spells by sitting in his underwear in front of an electric fan.

NED ROZELL

Fatal strain of bird flu fails to land in Alaska

Asian bird flu and its connection to Alaska was big news a few years ago, when dozens of Alaska scientists started checking birds migrating from Asia. Since 2003, the Asian H5N1 virus has spread west across Asia to Europe and Africa, and has killed more than 240 people. Alaska, so far, is clean.