All Stories by Sid Perkins
- Earth
North by Northwest
The Earth's magnetic poles wander around quite a bit, a phenomenon that occasionally confounded ancient explorers but is proving useful for today's archaeologists.
- Earth
The Salt Flat That Isn’t Flat: World’s largest playa sports ridges, valleys
An innovative field survey of the world's largest salt flat, a New Jersey–size playa high in the Andes, reveals that the barren expanse actually has minuscule, centimeter-scale variations in topography.
- Humans
Divorce is not ecofriendly
Divorce often takes a devastating toll on families, but it has significant impacts on the environment as well.
- Earth
Falling Behind: North American terrain absorbs carbon dioxide too slowly
North America's vegetation soaks up millions of tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere each year, an impressive rate of sequestration that still can't keep up with the prodigious emissions of the planet-warming gas generated by human activity on the continent.
- Paleontology
Huge, yet not quite life-size
The Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh will unveil the world's largest dinosaur mural on Nov. 21, when its dinosaur halls reopen after a 30-month, $36 million renovation.
- Earth
New climate sensor: Swiss grapes
Records of grape harvests reveal the summer climate in parts of Switzerland as far back as the 1400s.
- Paleontology
Back from the Dead?
The long-term disappearance of creatures from the fossil record and their later reemergence can provide insights into ancient environmental conditions and the trustworthiness of the fossil record itself.
- Earth
Yellowstone Rising: Magma floods into chamber beneath park
Some parts of the terrain in Yellowstone National Park have been rising as much as 7 centimeters per year as molten rock wells up beneath the park.
- Earth
Groundwater use adds CO2 to the air
Pumping out groundwater for crop irrigation or industrial purposes releases planet-warming carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
- Planetary Science
Chilled Out? Ice could lurk beneath Martian equator
An immense volume of ice-rich material may underlie a formation that extends about one-quarter of the way around Mars' equator.
- Paleontology
Meet the old wolves, same as the new wolves
The dire wolf, an extinct species preserved in abundance at the La Brea tar pits, seems to have had a social structure similar to that of its modern-day relatives.
- Paleontology
Dinosaurs matured sexually while still growing
Distinctive bone tissue in fossils of several dinosaur species suggests that the ancient reptiles became sexually mature long before they gained adult size.
