All Stories by Nikk Ogasa
- Climate
As wildfires worsen, science can help communities avoid destruction
Blazes sparked in wild lands are devastating communities worldwide. The only way to protect them, researchers say, is to re-engineer them.
- Materials Science
Salt can turn frozen water into a weak power source
Experiments reveal that when slabs of salty ice are strained, electricity is generated, though practical uses are still a long way off.
- Earth
Useful metals get unearthed in U.S. mines, then they’re tossed
Recovering these metals from mining by-products destined for waste sites could offset the need to import them from elsewhere or open new mines.
- Environment
See how aerosols loft through Earth’s sky
Aerosols, small particles in the atmosphere like salt and dust, may offset a third of human-caused climate warming, though their influence is fading.
- Paleontology
A new species of ‘penis worm’ was discovered in the Grand Canyon
A trove of fossils, including a penis worm with a spiked, invertible throat, suggests this spot may have been a cradle of Cambrian evolution.
- Earth
Why devastating tsunamis didn’t follow the Russia earthquake
Geologists unpack why the magnitude 8.8 temblor — the sixth largest ever recorded — fomented waves that reached Japan and Hawaii but caused little damage.
- Climate
Harmful heat doesn’t always come in waves
Even without reaching heat wave levels, sustained high temperatures may contribute to a litany of health issues.
- Earth
Small earthquakes can have a big impact on the movements of major faults
Small and far-off earthquakes can stifle the spread of large motions on some of the world’s biggest faults.
- Astronomy
A dwarf galaxy just might upend the Milky Way’s predicted demise
The Milky Way may merge with the Large Magellanic Cloud in 2 billion years, not Andromeda, contrary to previous findings.
- Planetary Science
Venus’ tectonics may be actively reshaping its surface
Circular landforms speckling the Venusian surface may be the work of tectonic activity.
- Space
Perseverance takes the first picture of a visible Martian aurora
A faint yet visible Martian aurora is the first instance of the phenomenon spotted from another planet's surface.
- Environment
Skyborne specks of life may influence rainfall patterns
A study of weather on a mountain in Greece reveal that bioparticles in the sky may drive fluctuations in rainfall patterns more broadly.
