All Stories by Sid Perkins
- Earth
Spores record changes in ozone concentration
Decreasing concentrations of atmospheric ozone over Antarctica have triggered changes in the spores of a plant that grows in the region, a trend that could give scientists insight into ancient extinctions.
- Earth
Earthshaking Event
Seismic instruments have provided a wealth of information about the earthquake that rocked Sumatra on Dec. 26, 2004.
- Materials Science
Fine Fabric: New, fast way to make sheets of nanotubes
Scientists have come up with a way to efficiently produce thin, transparent sheets of carbon nanotubes that are several meters long.
- Paleontology
Just for Frills?
The more that paleontologists scrutinize some dinosaurs' plates, frills, and other anatomical oddities, the more they suspect that the rationale behind these features is simply the need to be recognizably different.
- Earth
Methane Maker: Method gets to root of gas from rice paddies
Scientists have singled out microorganisms that appear to be largely responsible for natural emissions of the greenhouse gas methane from rice paddies.
- Earth
Multifaceted Mineral: Intense heat, pressure bear new form of silica
By squeezing a mineral sample to pressures higher than those deep within Earth, then zapping it with a laser, scientists have created a crystalline form of silicon dioxide previously unknown on Earth.
- Earth
Life thrived below solid ice shelf
A survey of a segment of Antarctic seafloor that until recently had laid beneath a thick, floating ice shelf for thousands of years has revealed an ecosystem apparently based on chemical nourishment, not sunshine.
- Earth
Hurricanes get boost from ocean spray
A new model that describes airflow across the ocean's surface suggests that tiny droplets whipped from the tops of waves increase wind speeds well above what they'd be if the ocean spray wasn't there.
- Earth
Great river cycles carbon quickly
Some of the organic material carried to the sea by the Amazon is thousands of years old, but much of the carbon in carbon dioxide emanating from the river was stored in plants for less than a decade.
- Paleontology
Young and Helpless: Fossils suggest that dinosaur parents cared
Skeletal remains found in the fossilized eggs of an early dinosaur hint that adults of the species may have cared for their hatchlings.
- Archaeology
Seeing Past the Dirt
Increasingly, researchers are using geophysical techniques such as ground-penetrating radar and magnetometers to target their excavations.
- Earth
Under Pressure: High-stress tests show surprising change in a mantle mineral’s behavior
Compressing a common iron-bearing mineral to the pressures found deep within Earth makes the material much stiffer, which might explain why seismic waves travel particularly fast through some zones of rock.
