The Brain Science Behind Flow States If you’ve ever skied powder or pushed your athletic ability in an action sport — or even played on a sports team — you’ve more than likely experienced a flow state. A flow state is only accessed when you are completely focused and in the zone, often when risk or consequence is involved. It produces a feeling that conquers all […] Brains Martin Kuprianowicz | May 1, 2026 8 Comments
“Embrace the Penguin” — But on the Right Continent A social media post in January 2026 from the White House featuring former U.S. President Donald Trump alongside a penguin in Greenland — captioned “Embrace the penguin”—briefly went viral earlier this year. While the image was intended as political messaging with regard’s to President Trump’s plans for Greenland, it also unintentionally revived a long-standing misconception: that penguins are associated with […] Brains Rouchelle Gilmore | April 28, 2026 0 Comments
How Colorado’s Peaks Prepared the Artemis II Astronauts for Their Lunar Mission As the Artemis II astronauts celebrate their safe return to Earth, the success of their historic lunar flyby is being traced back to the rugged terrain of the Colorado Rockies. While much of the spacecraft’s hardware was built in Denver, the crew’s ability to navigate the celestial unknown was sharpened in the high-altitude wilderness of the Centennial State. Related: Colorado’s […] Martin Kuprianowicz | April 16, 2026 0 Comments
Satellites Detect Seasonal Pulses in Earth’s Glaciers—And It Looks Like a Giant Heartbeat The Malaspina Glacier in southeastern Alaska is so massive that its ice spreads across the coastal plain like pancake batter—but new NASA analysis shows it behaves less like a frozen slab and more like a living, pulsing system. Using millions of satellite images collected between 2014 and 2022, NASA scientists have discovered that glaciers around the world speed up and […] Brains Martin Kuprianowicz | December 9, 2025 0 Comments
Brain Post: How Snow Guns Work The idea behind snowmaking is simple: you spray water into cold air, and it freezes into snow as it falls to the ground. But there’s more to it than that. Engineers have spent nearly 70 years developing snowmaking machines, so modern snowmaking is remarkably effective. Let’s take a look at how snow guns work. Related: Has Summertime Use of Snow […] Brains Tanner Blake | September 22, 2025 3 Comments
Alcohol at Altitude: Does 1 Beer in the Mountains Equal 3 Beers at Sea-Level? While living at an elevation of a mile-high or more for over a decade, I have frequently told my Flatlander visitors: “Be careful when you go out to the bars tonight… one drink at elevation equals two or three at sea level!” This urban myth, passed down to and by yours truly and countless others over the years, was established […] Brains Jared Roberts | June 9, 2025 0 Comments
Researchers Discover “Best-Preserved” Pair of 1,300-Year-Old Skis Ever Recovered on Norway Glacier A pair of prehistoric skis, more than 1,300 years old, has been reunited on a remote Norwegian mountainside after one ski was discovered this year just five meters (15 feet) from where the first was found in 2016. The discovery was made at Digervarden in September 2021, a site in Innlandet County, central Norway, by glacial archaeologists working with the […] Brains Martin Kuprianowicz | April 10, 2025 0 Comments
Why Millions of Skiers Keep Buying Epic and Ikon Passes, Even When It Doesn’t Make Financial Sense Have you ever looked at the multi-resort season passes like Epic or Ikon and wondered how these deals make financial sense to Vail Resorts or Alterra Corporation? After all, at a day pass price of $225-245 for Vail, the $841 season pass breaks even after just four days. You’d be forgiven to think that most people who buy these multi-resort […] Brains Julia Schneemann | May 1, 2023 8 Comments
Could Reviving the Woolly Mammoth Protect the Arctic Permafrost? Colossal Biosciences plans to heal the Earth in a nonconventional way. Their mission is to utilize bioscience to jumpstart nature’s ancestral heartbeat and create a healthier planet and human populace. Colossal is working on several projects, but one stands out the most: the Woolly Mammoth’s de-extinction. Related: Worms Frozen in Permafrost 42,000-Years Ago when Woolly Mammoths Roamed the Planet have been […] Brains Luke Guilford | February 1, 2023 0 Comments
Snow Fleas: Another Pesky Pest or the Key to a Scientific Breakthrough? Several Michiganders have spotted what appeared to be dirt sitting on top of the snow this winter. Upon closer inspection, it was discovered that the specks were not dirt at all. The specks were found to be alive and jumping; they were snow fleas. Before reaching for the phone to call exterminators, we must first understand the snow flea. The […] Brains Riley McDonald | January 10, 2023 0 Comments
Brain Post: Why Do Leaves Change Color in the Fall? It was officially the first day of fall this week, which can only mean one thing; winter’s coming! And as the temperatures drop and the seasons change, we get to revel in the beauty of the fall colors. The mixtures of red, purple, orange and yellow are the result of processes that take place in the tree as the seasons […] Brains The Brains | September 22, 2022 2 Comments
Study Finds Avalanche Victims With Long Burial Times (≥60 Min) Have Only 19% Chance of Survival Surviving an avalanche burial is completely correlated with burial time. As a rule of thumb, the longer someone’s been buried the lower the chance of survival. A recent study has been published where researchers looked at all completely buried avalanche victims with a burial duration of ≥60 min between 1997 and 2018 in Switzerland, and drew conclusions from the retrospective data. […] Avalanche AvyBrains | June 11, 2021 0 Comments
What is Graupel? And Why Do Skiers Love It? Graupel can be a gift for skiers because it falls as soft pellets that can smooth out firm surfaces and create fast, playful turns during storm cycles. For more mountain weather explainers, follow SnowBrains weather coverage. On the hill, the pellets often feel like tiny ball bearings underfoot. A shallow layer can make old snow feel surprisingly smooth, while a […] Brains WeatherBrains | May 24, 2021 0 Comments
NOAA and Communities to Map Heat Inequities in 11 states In summer 2021, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and partners will be mapping urban heat and heat inequities in cities in 11 states to help shed light on urban hot spots across the nation. NOAA wrote in a Facebook post detailing the project: “Cities are hot. And yet, even within the same city, some neighborhoods can be up […] Weather WeatherBrains | April 22, 2021 0 Comments
Denali National Park, Alaska: Muldrow Glacier Experiencing Rare Geologic Surge Event Denali National Park, Alaska – Denali’s 39-mile long Muldrow Glacier runs from Denali’s northeastern slope and eventually flows to the McKinley River. The glacier is now experiencing a geologic phenomenon known as a surge. According to the National Park Service, a glacial surge is: “…a short-lived, cyclical event where ice within a glacier advances suddenly and substantially, sometimes moving at […] Brains Dominic Gawel | April 15, 2021 0 Comments
How Mushrooms Can Eliminate Plastic Waste, Save the Bees, and Benefit Humanity Nature is unfathomably mysterious. The Earth is a living organism, and there’s so much we still don’t even know about it. Poetically, however, it may die that way, too. That is unless we put differences aside and assume the courage to actually do something about it. I know you’ve heard something along these lines before, and that last sentence probably […] Brains Martin Kuprianowicz | April 15, 2021 1 Comment
Why is Snow White? Snow is made of water, which appears totally clear and not as any specific color—so why is snow white? The answer to this mysterious question is simpler than you may think and has to do with the science of how we percieve it. Related: The Art & Science of Snowflakes Science tells us that snow is frozen water, or a […] Brains Martin Kuprianowicz | January 28, 2021 0 Comments
Snow Coverage on Japan’s Mount Fuji is Currently the Lowest it’s Been in 20 Years This article originally appeared on NASA Earth Observatory and was written by Adam Voiland Photos courtesy of NASA Earth Observatory Even as record snowfall has clobbered Japan’s western coast, much of the country’s eastern half has avoided major snow accumulation this winter. Notably, Mount Fuji’s iconic snow cap—which is normally visible throughout December—has been small or absent this year. The mountain peak, the […] SnowBrains | January 13, 2021 0 Comments
Brain Post: The Specter of a Mega-Tsunami in Alaska This article originally appeared on earthobservatory.nasa.gov While kayaking in Barry Arm fjord in June 2019, Valisa Higman, an artist-in-residence at Alaska’s Chugach National Forest, noticed some odd fractures on a cliff overlooking the fjord. Curious if the slope might be in the process of collapsing, she emailed photos (see one of them below) to her brother, Bretwood Higman. “Hig” is […] Brains SnowBrains | October 9, 2020 0 Comments
NASA: Avalanches Viewed on Mars Only an earthling would think that avalanches are exclusive to this planet. But little did you know that they happen on Mars too! NASA just recorded avalanches on the little red planet. NASA wrote in a report: August 12, 2020 The High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (Hi-RISE) camera aboard NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter captured this avalanche plunging down a 1,640-foot-tall (500-meter-tall) […] Avalanche SnowBrains | October 8, 2020 0 Comments
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