All Stories by Nikk Ogasa
- Climate
An incendiary form of lightning may surge under climate change
Relatively long-lived lightning strikes are the most likely to spark wildfires and may become more common as the climate warms.
- Climate
Climate ‘teleconnections’ may link droughts and fires across continents
Far-reaching climate patterns like the El Niño-Southern Oscillation may synchronize droughts and regulate scorching of much of Earth’s burned area.
- Paleontology
In the wake of history’s deadliest mass extinction, ocean life may have flourished
Ocean life may have recovered in just a million years after the Permian-Triassic mass extinction, fossils from South China suggest.
- Earth
Earth’s inner core may be reversing its rotation
In the past 13 years, the rotation of the planet’s solid inner core may have temporarily stopped and then started to reverse direction.
- Climate
Cyclones in the Arctic are becoming more intense and frequent
Over the last 70 years, boreal storms have steadily grown stronger. And climate change may make them worse, threatening both people and sea ice.
- Chemistry
How rare earth elements’ hidden properties make modern technology possible
Because of their unique chemistry, the rare earth elements can fine-tune light for many different purposes and generate powerful magnetic fields.
- Physics
Rare ‘dark lightning’ might briefly touch passengers when flying
Gamma-ray blasts from thunderstorms might occasionally zap passing airplanes, briefly exposing passengers to unsafe levels of radiation.
- Space
Io may have an underworld magma ocean or a hot metal heart
New calculations support dueling ideas for what powers the ubiquitous volcanoes on the hellish surface of Jupiter’s innermost moon.
- Planetary Science
The last vital ingredient for life has been discovered on Enceladus
The underground ocean on Saturn’s icy moon may contain phosphorus in concentrations thousands of times greater than those found in Earth’s ocean.
- Climate
2022’s biggest climate change bill pushes clean energy
Experts weigh in on the pros and cons of the United States’ first major climate change legislation, the Inflation Reduction Act, signed this year.
- Physics
50 years ago, physicists found the speed of light
In the 1970s, scientists set a new maximum speed limit for light. Fifty years later, they continue putting light through its paces.
- Chemistry
How to make tiny metal snowflakes
In a pool of molten gallium, researchers grew symmetrical, hexagonal zinc nanostructures that resemble natural snowflakes.
