All Stories by Sid Perkins
- Earth
Solving one mystery of polar wander
Long-term fluctuations in pressure at the ocean's bottom may be the driving force for the Chandler wobble, which causes the North Pole to wander about 20 feet every 14 months or so.
- Earth
Early web-footed bird made impression
Researchers have discovered the fossil tracks of an otherwise unknown bird in 110-million-year-old sediments, which pushes back evidence of web-footed birds by at least 25 million years.
- Earth
Where’s Waldo . . . and 6 billion others?
Scientists have combined satellite imagery and detailed census data to develop a worldwide database that can provide estimates of the number of people located in areas on a grid that has boxes with areas of 1 square kilometer or less.
- Earth
Wildfires spread across a parched West
Dozens of lightning-sparked wildfires seared the western United States last week, adding hundreds of thousands of acres of charred terrain to a tally that promises to make this fire season the worst in recent decades.
- Earth
Lack of spring snowpack bodes ill for many
NASA satellite images released last week confirmed that the northern United States had much less snow cover than normal this spring, following North America's warmest winter on record.
- Paleontology
Family Meal: Cannibal dinosaur known by its bones
Analyses of the gnaw marks on bones of Majungatholus atopus, a carnivorous dinosaur from Madagascar, indicate that the creatures routinely fed on members of their own species.
- Paleontology
Fossils of early salamanders found
A recent discovery of fossilized salamanders pushes back a milestone in amphibian evolution by more than 100 million years.
- Earth
Ssshhh! South Pole has a new seismic station
Seismometers recently installed near the South Pole reveal that the area is the quietest spot on the planet for eavesdropping on earthquakes.
- Earth
Dust up north
Strong northeasterly winds blowing across coastal regions of southern Alaska recently exposed by melting snow launched massive clouds of dust over the Gulf of Alaska.
- Earth
Newfound gas is greenhouse powerhouse
Scientists have detected in the atmosphere for the first time a gas that traps heat more effectively than any other previously found there.
- Paleontology
Was T. rex just a big freeloader?
A new study suggests that an ecosystem like today’s African savanna could provide sufficient carrion to nourish a scavenger the size of a Tyrannosaurus rex.
- Earth
More Arctic clouds may lessen warming
Nearly 2 decades of satellite observations suggest that an increase in Arctic cloudiness at certain times of the year may partially counteract the effects of global warming in the region.
