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. Paleontology

    How mammals took over the world

    In the book The Rise and Reign of the Mammals, paleontologist Steve Brusatte tracks the evolutionary innovations that made mammals so successful.

  2. Paleontology

    Great white sharks may have helped drive megalodons to extinction

    Analyzing zinc levels in shark teeth hints that megalodons and great whites competed with each other for food.

  3. Climate

    Scientists hope to mimic the most extreme hurricane conditions

    A $12.8 million NSF grant is funding the design of a facility that can generate winds of at least 290 kilometers per hour and towering storm surges.

  4. Earth

    Machine learning and gravity signals could rapidly detect big earthquakes

    Large earthquakes make speed-of-light adjustments to Earth’s gravitational field. Researchers have now trained computers to detect the signals.

  5. Climate

    Replacing some meat with microbial protein could help fight climate change

    Just a 20 percent substitution could cut deforestation rates and land-use CO2 emissions by more than half by 2050, a new study suggests.

  6. Paleontology

    Pterosaurs may have had brightly colored feathers on their heads

    The fossil skull of a flying reptile hints that feathers originated about 100 million years earlier than scientists thought.

  7. Paleontology

    Glowing spider fossils may exist thanks to tiny algae’s goo 

    Analyzing 22-million-year-old spider fossils from France revealed that they were covered in a tarry black substance that fluoresces.

  8. Climate

    Climate change intensified deadly storms in Africa in early 2022

    Tropical storms battered southeast Africa in quick succession from January through March, leading to hundreds of deaths and widespread damage.

  9. Climate

    A UN report says stopping climate change is possible but action is needed now

    We already have a broad array of tools to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030, a new report finds. Now we just have to use them.

  10. Paleontology

    Mammals’ bodies outpaced their brains right after the dinosaurs died

    Fossils show that mammals’ brains and bodies did not balloon together. The animals’ brains grew bigger later.

  11. Paleontology

    Spinosaurus’ dense bones fuel debate over whether some dinosaurs could swim

    New evidence that Spinosaurus and its kin hunted underwater won't be the last word on whether some dinosaurs were swimmers.

  12. Climate

    Smoke from Australia’s intense fires in 2019 and 2020 damaged the ozone layer

    Massive fires like those that raged in Australia in 2019–2020 can eat away at Earth’s protective ozone layer, researchers find.