All Stories by Sid Perkins
- Earth
Bolts from the blue can have long reach
Current U.S. Air Force operating procedures recommend personnel stop working outdoors when lightning is spotted within 5 nautical miles, but a new analysis suggests that this distance may not be adequate to fully protect aircraft and ground crews.
- Earth
Southeastern Alaska is on the rebound
Scientists using the Global Positioning System to track ground movement along faults in southeastern Alaska have measured something entirely different—the rapid rise of parts of the region due to the recent melting of glaciers.
- Earth
Global warming to boost cotton yields
The increase of carbon dioxide expected in the coming decades may boost cotton yields up to 26 percent, new models predict.
- Earth
Toxic metals taint ancient dust
A new study of dust lofted to Antarctica suggests that excess amounts of trace metals coated dust grains long before human industrial activity began loading the atmosphere with pollutants.
- Earth
Turbulence leads to early rain of ash
A new aerodynamic analysis suggests that chaotic turbulence in a high-altitude cloud of volcanic ash can cause small particles of the ash to clump together and fall to the ground much closer to the volcano than expected.
- Earth
It’s bottoms up for iron at sea’s surface
Sediments drilled from the seafloor off Antarctica suggest that the dissolved iron in surface waters that fuels much of the region's biological productivity comes from upwelling deep water currents, not from dust blowing off the continents.
- Earth
Forest-soil fungi emit gases that harm ozone layer
Laboratory tests reveal for the first time that certain types of common fungi can produce ozone-destroying methyl halide gases.
- Earth
Early last month, the iceberg cracked
A huge crack across the floating portion of an Antarctic glacier has cleaved the ice shelf and spawned a new iceberg much more quickly than scientists had expected.
- Earth
Charcoal warms the whole world
The techniques used in developing nations to transform wood into charcoal are net emitters of greenhouse gases, even though the wood used to produce the fuel removed globe-warming carbon dioxide from the atmosphere as it was growing.
- Paleontology
Turn Your Head and Roar
The analysis of fossils that preserve evidence of diseases that appear to be similar or identical to afflictions that strike modern animals, including humans, could help scientists better grasp the causes and courses of today's ailments.
- Ecosystems
Move over, Leo. Give me more elbow room
The average size of the largest land animals on each of 25 oceanic islands and five continents strongly depends on the land area there.
- Earth
Ripples Spread Wide from Ground Zero
Seismic vibrations produced by the collapse of the twin towers of the World Trade Center in lower Manhattan were recorded by seismometers scattered across the Northeast, some more than 425 kilometers away.
