Far North Science

A gleaming portal that catches the northern lights and low-angle midnight sun. A 400-foot tunnel into the permafrost. A chamber holding priceless treasure — three million samples of seeds that grow all our crops, fruits and vegetables.

Drawing of Svaalbard Global Seed Vault

A Norwegian group has released a design for a “fail-safe” doomsday vault on Spitzbergen Island of Svalbard to forever protect the world’s agricultural heritage against extinction and calamity: global warming, rising sea levels — even nuclear war.

“This design takes us one step closer to guaranteeing the safety of the world’s most
important natural resource,� said Dr. Cary Fowler, Executive Director of the Global Crop Diversity Trust.

Read on » » » »

“Keep your fingers crossed so the engine doesn’t quit again. We are on our third oil pump, all three jerry rigged by Jerome and Leiv. The crossing from the Falklands to the Antarctic Peninsula took 3 and a half days. We are already double that.”

Homer author and adventurer Shelley Gill is six days into her return voyage from Antarctica to the Falkland Islands. Check out musings and photos about the mysterious albatross on her blog.

You can photograph albatrosses gliding around our Golden Fleece. Yeah, the big ocean birds with wings like huge gliders, glistening white chests, and large pinkish bills with prominent nostrils which ooze salt sludge extracted from the seawater they drink.