All Stories by Sid Perkins
- 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.
- Earth
From Bad to Worse: Earth’s warming to accelerate
Global warming is real and will continue, and there's strong evidence that people are to blame, an international panel of scientists has concluded.
- Ecosystems
An unexpected, thriving ecosystem
A diverse group of creatures beneath an Antarctic ice shelf could give pause to researchers who infer past ecological conditions from fossils found in such sediments.
- Earth
Corn, a new sensor of carbon dioxide
Scientists have developed a way to use corn plants to monitor and map human-generated emissions of carbon dioxide.
- Tech
Wrinkle, wrinkle, little polymer
Scientists have developed a cheap and easy way to create specific patterns of tiny wrinkles on the surface of a flexible and commonly used polymer, a technique that could be used to fabricate an assortment of microdevices.
- Materials Science
Microstructures make a beetle brilliant
Engineers looking to make a variety of surfaces whiter and brighter could learn a few things from a lowly beetle.
- Earth
Sudden Chill
Today's combination of nuclear proliferation, political instability, and urban demographics increases the likelihood that humankind could suffer a devastating nuclear winter.
- Paleontology
Ancient Glider: Dinosaur took to the air in biplane style
About 125 million years before the Wright Brothers took to the air with their biplane, a 1-meter-long dinosaur may have been swooping from tree to tree using the same arrangement of wings.
- Paleontology
Going Under Down Under: Early people at fault in Australian extinctions
A lengthy, newly compiled fossil record of Australian mammals bolsters the notion that humanity's arrival on the island continent led to the extinction of many large creatures there.
- Earth
2006: Hottest year in U.S. history
Preliminary analyses of weather data gathered from more than 1,200 sites across the continental United States indicate that last year was the warmest on record.
- Paleontology
Of penguins’ range and climate change
Variations in the range of Adélie penguins along one section of Antarctica's coast during the past 45,000 years are a keen indicator of climate change there.
