All Stories by Sid Perkins
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- Earth
Natural heat
Heat from the decay of radioactive elements deep within the planet could meet Earth’s energy needs almost three times over — if we could harness all of it.
- Earth
Virtual seismometer
A new supercomputer simulation of the large quake that struck central China earlier this month could help researchers estimate the size of the ground motions experienced in areas that didn’t have seismic instruments.
- Earth
Death downwind
Pollutants generated by human activity in Europe significantly boost ozone concentrations downwind, harming people’s health and causing thousands of premature deaths in North Africa, the Near East and the Middle East.
- Archaeology
Footprints in the ash
Humans may have been walking around what is now central Mexico 40,000 years ago.
- Life
Killer bee colonization
A NASA project will combine satellite observations of plant growth in the continental United States and projections of how climate might change in coming years to estimate where “killer bees” could ultimately survive in the wild.
- Earth
Life down deep
Deep-sea sediments provide a habitat for diverse and abundant populations of microorganisms and may be home to as much as 70 percent of the bacteria on the planet, new studies suggest.
- Paleontology
Walking tall
Some types of the largest flying reptiles ever known were well adapted to life on the ground.
- Ecosystems
That sinking feeling
The sea level rise expected in the coming century will swamp the Everglades unless current management is adjusted or climate change is curbed.
- Life
Rock-hard evidence
Newly discovered dinosaur tracks, the first ever reported from the Arabia Peninsula, indicate that a part of the now-arid region was teeming with dinosaurs about 150 million years ago.
- Earth
Eddies in the deep Earth
The flow of molten material in our planet's outer core is the prime source of Earth's magnetic field. Localized blips in the magnetic field suggest this flow can fluctuate rapidly over large areas.
- Earth
Climate clues in ice
A kilometers-long ice core from Antarctica has been recording climate information for the past 800,000 years and has revealed a three millennia–long period when carbon dioxide levels in the air were lower than any previously measured.
