Sid Perkins

Sid Perkins is a freelance science writer based in Crossville, Tenn.

All Stories by Sid Perkins

  1. Earth

    Earth sometimes shivers beneath thick blankets of ice

    New analyses of old seismic data have distinguished the ground motions spawned by a previously unrecognized type of earthquake—quakes created by brief surges of massive glaciers.

  2. Earth

    Thin Skin

    Desert pavement, a delicate veneer of stones that covers the surface of up to 50 percent of the world's arid lands, is susceptible to being damaged by everything from multi-ton tanks to careless footsteps, and the resulting scars can take thousands of years to mend on their own.

  3. Earth

    Ash Clouds: Severe storms can lift smoke into stratosphere

    New field observations, satellite images, and computer models suggest that a severe thunderstorm, enhanced by heat from forest fires, can boost soot, smoke, and other particles as far as the lower stratosphere, an unexpected phenomenon.

  4. Earth

    Ash Clouds: Severe storms can lift smoke into stratosphere

    New field observations, satellite images, and computer models suggest that a severe thunderstorm, enhanced by heat from forest fires, can boost soot, smoke, and other particles as far as the lower stratosphere, an unexpected phenomenon.

  5. Paleontology

    Proud paleontologists proclaim: It’s a boy!

    Marine sediments deposited about 425 million years ago have yielded what scientists contend is the world’s oldest undoubtedly male fossil.

  6. Planetary Science

    Martian sand ripples are taller than Earth’s

    New data gathered by a Mars-orbiting probe suggest that large ripples found in sandy areas of the Red Planet are more than twice as tall as their terrestrial counterparts.

  7. Earth

    Lake Retreat: African river valley once hosted big lake

    The valley of the White Nile in Africa may long ago have held a shallow lake that sprawled 70 kilometers across and stretched more than 500 km along the river.

  8. Earth

    Fill ‘er up . . . with a few tons of wheat

    A new analysis suggests that the amount of ancient plant matter that was needed to make just 1 gallon of gasoline is the same amount that can be grown each year in a 40-acre wheat field—roots, stalks, and all.

  9. Earth

    Pieces of a Pulverizer? Sediment fragments may be from killer space rock

    Scientists sifting sediments laid down just after Earth's most devastating mass extinction 250 million years ago may have found minuscule fragments of the extraterrestrial object that caused the catastrophe.

  10. Paleontology

    Northern Extinction: Alaskan horses shrank, then disappeared

    Horses that lived in Alaska shrank dramatically in body size before they went extinct at the end of the last ice age.

  11. Earth

    Attack of the Rock-Eating Microbes!

    Geologists who examine mineral transformations increasingly see bacteria at work, leading the scientists to conclude that if microbes aren't driving the underlying chemical reactions, at least they're taking advantage of the energy that's released.

  12. Earth

    Cast-Iron Foot: Undersea snail has mineral armor

    An as-yet-unnamed species of snail living around hydrothermal vents deep beneath the Indian Ocean bears a suit of armor forged from the minerals dissolved in the hot fluids that spew from its seafloor environment.