All Stories by Carolyn Gramling
- Earth
Machine learning and gravity signals could rapidly detect big earthquakes
Large earthquakes make speed-of-light adjustments to Earth’s gravitational field. Researchers have now trained computers to detect the signals.
- Climate
Replacing some meat with microbial protein could help fight climate change
Just a 20 percent substitution could cut deforestation rates and land-use CO2 emissions by more than half by 2050, a new study suggests.
- Paleontology
Pterosaurs may have had brightly colored feathers on their heads
The fossil skull of a flying reptile hints that feathers originated about 100 million years earlier than scientists thought.
- Paleontology
Glowing spider fossils may exist thanks to tiny algae’s goo
Analyzing 22-million-year-old spider fossils from France revealed that they were covered in a tarry black substance that fluoresces.
- Climate
Climate change intensified deadly storms in Africa in early 2022
Tropical storms battered southeast Africa in quick succession from January through March, leading to hundreds of deaths and widespread damage.
- Climate
A UN report says stopping climate change is possible but action is needed now
We already have a broad array of tools to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030, a new report finds. Now we just have to use them.
- Paleontology
Mammals’ bodies outpaced their brains right after the dinosaurs died
Fossils show that mammals’ brains and bodies did not balloon together. The animals’ brains grew bigger later.
- Paleontology
Spinosaurus’ dense bones fuel debate over whether some dinosaurs could swim
New evidence that Spinosaurus and its kin hunted underwater won't be the last word on whether some dinosaurs were swimmers.
- Climate
Smoke from Australia’s intense fires in 2019 and 2020 damaged the ozone layer
Massive fires like those that raged in Australia in 2019–2020 can eat away at Earth’s protective ozone layer, researchers find.
- Oceans
Even the sea has light pollution. These new maps show its extent
Coastal cities and offshore development create enough light to potentially alter behavior of tiny organisms dozens of meters below the surface.
- Earth
The mysterious Hiawatha crater in Greenland is 58 million years old
An impact crater spotted in 2015 in Greenland is far too old to be connected to the Younger Dryas cold snap from 13,000 years ago, a study suggests.
- Paleontology
Fossils show a crocodile ancestor dined on a young dinosaur
The 100-million-year-old fossil of a crocodile ancestor contains the first indisputable evidence that dinosaurs were on the menu.
