Sid Perkins
Sid Perkins is a freelance science writer based in Crossville, Tenn.
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All Stories by Sid Perkins
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Earth
Stunting Growth: Ozone will trim plants’ carbon-storing power
Increasing ground-level ozone due to pollution will stifle the growth of vegetation in many regions, accelerating the buildup of planet-warming carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
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Earth
Erosion accelerates along Alaskan coast
Alaska's northern coast is falling into the sea at an accelerating rate.
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Earth
Birth of an Island: Megaflood severed Europe from Britain
Hundreds of thousands of years ago, the spillover from an immense glacial lake carved a chasm that in a matter of weeks separated what is now Britain from continental Europe.
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Ecosystems
Sea Change: People have affected what penguins eat
Adélie penguins in Antarctica significantly changed their eating habits about 200 years ago, after whaling and other human activities transformed the ocean ecosystem.
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Earth
As the last ice age waned, a great lake was born
Lake Agassiz, a huge and now vanished freshwater lake, formed almost 14,000 years ago, toward the end of the last ice age.
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Earth
Polymer Breakdown: Reaction offers possible way to recycle nylon
A new chemical process offers hope that the thousands of tons of nylon thrown away every year could one day be recycled.
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Earth
Icebergs can be biological hot spots
Icebergs carry nutrients from the land and shed them into the sea, nourishing life in the frigid waters near Antarctica.
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Chemistry
A sweet way to replace petroleum?
Thanks to a new chemical process, many products now manufactured from petroleum could one day be made from sugar molecules.
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Earth
A Gemstone’s Wild Ride
Diamonds may be carried to the surface in explosions of gas and rock fizzing up from deep within Earth's mantle.
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Paleontology
Winged dragon
A quarry on the Virginia–North Carolina border has yielded fossils of an unusual gliding reptile that lived in the region about 220 million years ago.
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Earth
Tree rings tell tale of megadroughts
Tree rings in ancient timber show that the Colorado Plateau experienced a 60-year drought in the 12th century.