All Stories by Sid Perkins
- Tech
A new deep-sea submersible
Scientists have announced a 4-year, $21.6-million design-and-construction effort to replace the aging research submersible Alvin.
- Earth
Early Shift: North Sea plankton and fish move out of sync
As ocean temperatures in the North Sea have warmed in recent decades, the life cycles of some species low in the food chain have accelerated significantly, sometimes wreaking ecological havoc.
- Paleontology
Growth Spurt: Teenage tyrannosaurs packed on the pounds
Detailed analyses of tyrannosaur fossils suggest that the creatures experienced an extended growth spurt during adolescence.
- Paleontology
Fossil find extends ants’ ancient lineage
The recently described, 92-million-year-old fossil of a primitive worker ant pushes back the first record of its particular subfamily by 40 million years, forcing researchers to reevaluate their ideas about the early evolution of these insects.
- Planetary Science
Meteorites quickly reach Earth
Fragments from collisions between large bodies in the asteroid belt can reach Earth in as little as 100,000 years.
- Paleontology
Bird Brain? Cranial scan of fossil hints at flight capability
Detailed computerized tomography scans of the fossilized braincase of an Archaeopteryx show that several flight-related regions of the feathered creature's brain were highly developed.
- Earth
Twin satellites track water’s rise and fall
A pair of satellites launched in 2002 has detected small, regional changes in Earth's gravitational field that are caused by seasonal variations in rainfall and soil moisture.
- Paleontology
Early life forms had a modular structure
Fossils recently discovered in northeastern Newfoundland reveal that some of Earth's earliest large organisms had modular body plans whose main architectural element was a branching, frondlike structure.
- Earth
Parting Shots
Data collected during an 18-day barrage of major solar flares late last year—including a record-setting coronal mass ejection on Nov. 4—will help scientists refine models of flare formation and behavior.
- Earth
Quick Bite: Some gorges carved surprisingly fast
Analyses of rock samples from two river gorges along the Atlantic seaboard suggest that the largest parts of those chasms were carved during a geologically short period at the height of the last ice age.
- Paleontology
Chipmunks in Wisconsin toughed out ice age
Analyses of DNA from chipmunks in parts of the U.S. Midwest hint that some populations of the creatures stayed in northern refuges rather than migrating south at the beginning of the last ice age.
- Earth
Sea Change: Carbon dioxide imperils marine ecosystems
Almost half the carbon dioxide produced by human activity in the past 2 centuries is now dissolved in the oceans, resulting in chemical changes that, if unchecked, could threaten some marine ecosystems.
