Sid Perkins
Sid Perkins is a freelance science writer based in Crossville, Tenn.
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All Stories by Sid Perkins
- Climate
Heat waves stunt grassland growth
An abnormally hot year can significantly suppress growth in grasslands, a stifling effect that lingers well into the next year even if temperatures return to normal. It can also hinder how well the grasslands absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
- Earth
Don’t blame the cities
Urban sprawl is sometimes blamed for skewing weather data and creating a false signal of global warming, but a new study suggests this idea is just a lot of hot air.
- Earth
Mighty hurricanes get mightier
Peak winds in North Atlantic hurricanes and similar storms elsewhere in the world have gained speed during the past three decades, thanks to a warming trend in many of the ocean basins where such storms are spawned.
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- Earth
Past gasps
Earth’s atmosphere during some past geological ages wasn’t as oxygen-deprived as previously thought, new experiments suggest.
- Life
Compass creatures
Herds of grazing and resting deer and cattle tend to align themselves with the Earth’s magnetic field, a hint that the large mammals can somehow sense the invisible field.
- Earth
Firm evidence that Earth’s core is solid
Faint yet distinct ground motions recorded by a large network of seismic instruments in Japan in early 2006 are the strongest, most direct evidence that Earth’s inner core is solid.
- Life
Humans aided, constrained by fossil fuels
Maintaining long-term population will require alternate energy sources.
- Climate
Forecast: Gullywashers
Climate simulations are underestimating how often intense rainstorms occur at warm temperatures, a hint that episodes of extremely strong precipitation and flooding will strike more often as the global average temperature rises.
- Earth
Naked planet
Scientists officially launch OneGeology, a project that will produce a single digital map of the planet’s geological formations.
- Life
Time to chill
Well-preserved fossils deposited in an Antarctic lake about 14 million years ago pin down when a large part of the now-icy continent most recently dipped below freezing.
- Paleontology
Soft tissue in fossils still mysterious
New research suggests modern biofilms could contaminate ancient fossils.