New Website Brings Arctic Research to Our Desktops

A University of Alaska Fairbanks scientist has launched a website, Frontier Scientists, that showcases video podcasts by field researchers in Alaska and presents articles, blog posts and photos related to Arctic research and discoveries.

The NSF-supported site is furthering efforts to promote science literacy and linking scientists directly to the general public.

Blogging from tents and taking video recorders out into the field, the site's contributors provide an intimate view of field research in one of the last great frontiers. Frontier Scientists covers a range of research in the northern regions, with subjects such as:

• how ancient humans hunted whales with poison spears
• petroglyphs
• archaeological sites
• volcanic eruptions
• ancient lakes in Siberia
• traditional knowledge of Aleut weaving

The site features scientist "vodcasts" and bios, has a space where people can submit questions to the scientists, and offers links to Facebook and Twitter feeds as well as a news blog, "Frontier Updates."

The Frontier Scientists project team hopes that travelers, teachers, students, aspiring scientists and anyone else interested in science will feel as if they are alongside these intrepid researchers tracking grizzly bears, for example, or traveling to the furthest reaches to document how climate change is disrupting Alaskan ways of life.