While on Spitsbergen island in the Svalbard archipelago, I interviewed the mayor of the world’s northernmost permanent settlement in the wake of the collapse of coal, the town’s main industry. This quick Q&A summarizes his vision for the path ahead.

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Miner statue, Longyearbyen
© Randall Hyman

Here is a condensed, easy-to-read version of my article about the promise and peril of methane hydrates off the coast of the Svalbard archipelago.

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Friederike Gründger, a post-doc scholar working with Helge Niemann, filters methanotrophic microbes from water samples to measure methane consumption during research cruise in the Svalbard archipelago, Norway. © Randall Hyman

Easter is celebrated lots of ways around the world, but one of the most unique is found in northern Norway, in the land of the Sami, where colorful costumes and hypnotic singing are par for the course. Here’s my article about it in Smithsonian Magazine.

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Women in traditional Sami costumes from across Scandinavia perform at the Sami Easter Festival in Kautokeino, Norway. © Randall Hyman

Posted today in the online version of The Atlantic magazine, here is an inside, first-person account of the fascinating research being pursued by scientists in a remote fjord in the dead of the Arctic winter.

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Scientists launch autonomous, self-propelled kayak in heart of the polar night to correlate marine biomass movements with tiny changes in ambient light of the four-month long darkness. © Randall Hyman