All Stories by Sid Perkins
- Archaeology
Lake-Bottom Bounty: Some Arctic sediments didn’t erode during recent ice ages
Sediments in a few lakes in northeastern Canada were not scoured away during recent ice ages, a surprising find that could prove a boon to climate researchers.
- Paleontology
Unexpected Archive: Mammoth hair yields ancient DNA
Hair from ancient mammoths contains enough genetic material to permit reconstruction of parts of the animal's genome.
- Astronomy
Out-of-focus find
Blurry images yield estimates of the true width of glowing meteor vapor trails in Earth's upper atmosphere.
- Paleontology
Bumpy Bones: Fossil hints that dinosaur had feathery forearms
A series of knobs on the forearm bone of a 1.5-meter-long velociraptor provides the first direct evidence of substantial feathers on a dinosaur of that size.
- Earth
Meteor dust layers taint Antarctic ice
Two layers of deep Antarctic ice, each hundreds of thousands of years old, are rich in meteoritic dust.
- Earth
Grazing on the Periodic Table: Some ancient microorganisms lived on a diet of pure sulfur
Microorganisms that lived 3.5 billion years ago obtained energy by metabolizing pure sulfur.
- Earth
What Goes Up
A massive scientific field study in Mexico City, along with lab experiments and computer simulations, show that pollution from the world's megacities has a global impact.
- Earth
Sonic Sands: Uncovering the secret of the booming dunes
The age-old mystery of sand dunes that produce loud, thrumming noises is explained by a new theory that involves a resonant layer of dry sand.
- Plants
Cretaceous Corsages? Fossil in amber suggests antiquity of orchids
Orchids appeared on the scene about 80 million years ago, according to evidence from a bee that collected orchid pollen and got trapped in amber.
- Earth
Arctic snow was dirtier in early 1900s
Arctic snow collects less soot now than it did a century ago, but it's still dirtier than it was before the Industrial Revolution.
- Earth
O River Deltas, Where Art Thou? Coastal sinking stalls sediment accumulation
The western coast of Siberia lacks river deltas because of the way the terrain has subsided since the end of the last ice age.
- Earth
It’s not nice to fool Mother Nature
Throwing tiny particles into the atmosphere to counteract global warming could cause extended droughts and other weather disruptions.
