All Stories by Sid Perkins
- Paleontology
Birds’ ancestors had small genomes too
Among mammals, reptiles, and related animals, today's birds have the smallest genomes, and the dinosaurs that gave rise to birds had small genomes as well.
- Earth
Fits and Starts
New data identify some factors that influence the highly variable flow rates of ice streams, the megaglaciers that carry most of Antarctica's ice to the sea.
- Earth
World’s climate map gets an update
A century-old system of categorizing the world's climates has been updated to include modern weather data, thereby providing researchers with a tool to better verify results of their computer simulations.
- Paleontology
Catching evolution in the act
Paleontologists have unearthed fossils that provide direct evidence of something scientists had long suspected: The tiny bones in the middle ears of modern-day mammals evolved from bones located at the rear of their reptilian ancestors' jaws.
- Earth
Hey, it’s cooler near the sprinklers
Extensive agricultural irrigation can significantly affect local climate and may be masking the effects of global warming in some areas.
- Earth
High and Dry: Pollution may stifle mountain precipitation
Trends seen in meteorological data gathered on a Chinese mountaintop suggest that air pollution reduces the amount of precipitation that falls in high-altitude regions.
- Earth
Not-So-Perma Frost
The world's warming climate, as well as ecological shifts in the timing and frequency of wildfires in boreal forests, pose an increasing threat to Arctic permafrost.
- Paleontology
Ancient slowpoke
A 1-centimeter-long, 505-million-year-old fossil from British Columbia represents a creature that joins two lineages of marine invertebrates from that era that scientists previously hadn't linked.
- Earth
Subglacial lakes may influence ice flow
The flow of water into and out of massive, ice-covered lakes in Antarctica may influence the speed at which the overlying glaciers move toward the sea.
- Health & Medicine
A cornea that’s got some nerve
Researchers have developed a technique to grow corneal tissue that includes nerve cells, an advance that may enable them to test consumer products in lab dishes rather than live animals.
- Ecosystems
Warming Sign? Larger dead zones form off Oregon coast
Unprecedented recent changes in the yearly pattern of ocean currents off North America's West Coast have wreaked havoc on aquatic ecosystems there, another possible symptom of Earth's warming climate.
- Earth
Stroke of Good Fortune: A wealth of data from petrified lightning
The lumps of glass created when lightning strikes sandy ground can preserve information about ancient climate.
