UAF in the news: week of Feb. 12, 2007

Submitted by Marmian Grimes
Phone: (907) 474-7902
02/16/07

University attempts to rehab crab with hatchery
KTUU and other Alaska outlets
Seward, Alaska - Longtime Alaska crab fishermen know, perhaps better than any other, the boom-and-bust lifestyle. But in some areas of the state, the last two decades have been more bust than boom when it comes to king crab. Read more ...

Technology and UAF are letting indigenous people from across the map share
Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
It’s 7,500 miles from Fairbanks to Brazil, but for some indigenous dancers in both countries Thursday afternoon, the miles melted away.
Thanks to cameras, computers, digital projectors, microphones and a stunningly high-speed network connection, a Native Alaskan dance group at the University of Alaska Fairbanks was able to communicate, collaborate and perform live with dance groups in Florida, Mexico, Ecuador and Brazil. Read more ...

Science awakens to the possibilities of human hibernation
Paramus Post
In December, a 35-year-old Japanese man was found after he spent 24 days in the wild, reportedly without food or water. The man - Mitsutaka Uchikoshi - told rescuers he remembered falling asleep in a field, possibly losing consciousness after a fall. After that, nothing. Read more ...

6 aurora-research rockets to launch from Poker Flat
Spaceref and PressZoom
Scientists from the University of Alaska Fairbanks and the University of New Hampshire have experiments ready on the launch rails at Poker Flat Research Range north of Fairbanks, and another scientist is waiting in New Hampshire to launch an additional experiment from Poker Flat. Read more ...

NASA investigates a pulsating aurora
Daily India, SITNews, Anchorage Daily News and multiple publications worldwide
FAIRBANKS, Alaska, Feb. 13 (UPI) -- A NASA suborbital sounding rocket was launched from the Poker Flat Research Range in Alaska and fired into an aurora display. Read more ...

Akasofu retires as IARC director, returns to studies
Anchorage Daily News and Sun Star
FAIRBANKS, Alaska (AP) - He began as a graduate student seeking an opportunity when he came to UAF in 1958 to study the aurora borealis. This month, Syun Akasofu retired as International Arctic Research Center director to focus on his auroral physics research. Read more ...

Program aims to keep public up-to-date on climate
Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
The changing climate in Alaska has implications for businesses, subsistence hunters, and communities large and small across the state. Scientists have, for the past several years, been tracking the changing climate and collecting data. That data could be helpful to business leaders and policymakers in the state as they try to adapt to the climate changes. Read more ...

UAF professor’s book turned into Dutch television show
Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
A book by Judith Kleinfeld, a professor at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, is slated to be the foundation for a Dutch TV program. Read more ...

Native languages scholar receives lifetime achievement award
Anchorage Daily News
FAIRBANKS -- Michael Krauss, professor emeritus at the University of Alaska Fairbanks and founder of the Alaska Native Language Center, received the Ken Hale Prize for lifetime achievement from the Society for the Study of Indigenous Languages of the Americas. Read more ...

Does language extinction matter?
Mongabay.com
Most of humanity’s 6,000 languages could be extinct within the next two centuries. Does it matter? Read more ...

Adventurers head down Yukon to monitor permafrost
SITNews
Kenji Yoshikawa has seen a good portion of the planet he calls home. Born in Tokyo, he has biked across Australia, walked the Sahara, skied across Greenland and to the South Pole, and he made his way to Alaska by sailing to Barrow from Japan. Read more ...

Orchestra founder, environmentalist Gordon Wright dies
Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
Known as the man who brought music to all corners in Alaska, Gordon Wright, a retired music professor and conductor of the Fairbanks Symphony Orchestra and founder of the Arctic Chamber Orchestra, died this week of natural causes. He was 73. Read more ...