Carolyn Gramling

Carolyn Gramling

Earth & Climate Writer

Carolyn is the Earth & Climate writer at Science News. Previously she worked at Science magazine for six years, both as a reporter covering paleontology and polar science and as the editor of the news in brief section. Before that she was a reporter and editor at EARTH magazine. She has bachelor’s degrees in Geology and European History and a Ph.D. in marine geochemistry from MIT and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. She’s also a former Science News intern.

All Stories by Carolyn Gramling

  1. Earth

    Polar forests may have just solved a solar storm mystery

    Spikes of carbon-14 in tree rings may be linked to solar flares, but evidence of the havoc-wreaking 1859 Carrington event has proven elusive until now.

  2. Earth

    Climate change is changing how we keep time

    Polar ice sheets are melting faster, slowing Earth’s spin. That is changing how we synchronize our clocks to tell time.

  3. Climate

    Waterlogged soils can give hurricanes new life after they arrive on land

    New studies show that the long-hypothesized “brown ocean effect” is real, helping to refuel 2018’s Hurricane Florence and other storms after landfall.

  4. Earth

    Many but not all of the world’s aquifers are losing water

    Many aquifers are quickly disappearing due to climate change and overuse, but some are rising because of improved resource management.

  5. Paleontology

    Earth’s largest ape went extinct 100,000 years earlier than once thought

    Habitat changes drove the demise of Gigantopithecus blacki, a new study reports. The find could hold clues for similarly imperiled orangutans.

  6. Climate

    COP28 nations agreed to ‘transition’ from fossil fuels. That’s too slow, experts say

    COP28 ended with a historic climate agreement to begin moving away from fossil fuels, but stopped short of mandating phasing them out.

  7. Climate

    COP28 is making headlines. Here’s why the focus on methane matters

    Here’s one takeaway from COP28: Deep cuts to methane are essential to meet the Paris Agreement goals. That’s still possible.

  8. Climate

    Here’s how 2023 became the hottest year on record

    The effects of climate change were on clear display in 2023 as records not only broke, but did so by surprising amounts.

  9. Climate

    A new UN report lays out an ethical framework for climate engineering

    The report’s release, which coincides with COP28, weighs the ethics of using technological interventions to mitigate climate change.

  10. Climate

    The last 12 months were the hottest on record

    The planet’s average temperature was about 1.3 degrees Celsius higher than the 1850–1900 average, a new report finds.

  11. Paleontology

    Newfound fossil species of lamprey were flesh eaters

    In China, paleontologists have unearthed fossils of two surprisingly large lamprey species from the Jurassic Period.

  12. Chemistry

    The development of quantum dots wins the 2023 Nobel prize in chemistry

    Moungi Bawendi, Louis Brus and Alexei Ekimov split the prize for their work in creating nanoparticles whose properties depend on their size.