Nikk Ogasa is a staff writer who focuses on the physical sciences for Science News, based in Brooklyn, New York. He has a master's degree in geology from McGill University, where he studied how ancient earthquakes helped form large gold deposits. He earned another master's degree in science communication from the University of California, Santa Cruz. His stories have been published in ScienceScientific American, Mongabay and the Mercury News, and he was the summer 2021 science writing intern at Science News.

All Stories by Nikk Ogasa

  1. An illustration of blue-gray clouds with bright blue and orange dots of light scattered throughout the image.
    Planetary Science

    Jupiter’s lightning bolts contort the same way as Earth’s

    Jovian lightning extends in jagged steps as it does on Earth, data from NASA’s Juno spacecraft suggest. The finding might aid the search for life.

  2. A photo of Deblina Sarkar standing behind a table with a big microscope on it.
    Tech

    Deblina Sarkar is building microscopic machines to enter our brains

    The ultratiny devices can communicate wirelessly from inside living cells and may one day help cure brain diseases.

  3. An image of Saturn and its rings.
    Planetary Science

    Saturn’s rings may be no more than 400 million years old

    An analysis of data from NASA’s defunct Cassini probe suggests Saturn's rings materialized more than 100 million years after trilobites appeared on Earth.

  4. A photo from high up of Lake Urmia in Iran.
    Environment

    More than half of the world’s largest lakes are drying up

    Satellite data from 1992 to 2020 reveal that 53 percent of the world’s largest freshwater bodies shrank during that period while only 24 percent grew.

  5. A Siberian landscape marred by an oil spill
    Climate

    Thawing permafrost may unleash industrial pollution across the Arctic

    As the frozen ground warms due to climate change, industrial pollutants could flow free from thousands of sites across the Arctic.

  6. An illustration of Mars cut in half to see the inner workings of the planet and its core.
    Planetary Science

    Seismic waves crossing Mars’ core reveal details of the Red Planet’s heart

    NASA’s InSight lander observed a quake and an impact on the farside of Mars, allowing researchers to measure physical properties of the planet’s core.

  7. A photo of Jupiter with its moons Io and Europa seen in front.
    Planetary Science

    Baby Jupiter glowed so brightly it might have desiccated its moon

    During its infancy, Jupiter may have glowed about 10 thousand times brighter than it does today, which may explain why its moon Io is completely dry.

  8. A close-up of rice plants
    Agriculture

    Martian soil may have all the nutrients rice needs

    Experiments hint that in the future, we might be able to grow the staple food in the soils of the Red Planet.

  9. An illustration of a planet crashing into Earth, setitng off a huge explosion and launching chunks of rock into space
    Earth

    A moon-forming cataclysm could have also triggered Earth’s plate tectonics

    Deeply buried remnants of a hypothetical planet that slammed into Earth 4.5 billion years ago might have set subduction into motion.

  10. A photo of smoke rising above a forest.
    Climate

    Wildfires in boreal forests released a record amount of CO2 in 2021

    Boreal forests store about one-third of the world’s land-based carbon. With wildfires increasing there, fighting climate change could get even harder.

  11. image of a lightning strike above a wildfire in Wenatchee, Washington
    Climate

    An incendiary form of lightning may surge under climate change

    Relatively long-lived lightning strikes are the most likely to spark wildfires and may become more common as the climate warms.

  12. An opaque photo of a wildfire overtop an opaque satellite image of Africa.
    Climate

    Climate ‘teleconnections’ may link droughts and fires across continents

    Far-reaching climate patterns like the El Niño-Southern Oscillation may synchronize droughts and regulate scorching of much of Earth’s burned area.