All Stories by Sid Perkins
- Humans
Dangerous Wake: Wing vortices yield a deadly secret
A new mathematical analysis of an aeronautical hazard known as wake turbulence could someday lead to improved air safety and increase the number of flights at major airports.
- Physics
Voyager spacecraft still buffeted by sun
Even though the two Voyager probes launched in 1977 passed the outermost planets in our solar system more than a decade ago, their sensors show that they can't yet outrun the influence of solar flares.
- Earth
Famed undersea vent may be lost
When scientists last month tried to revisit an undersea hydrothermal vent first discovered nearly a quarter of a century ago, they found the site desolate, possibly paved by a fresh volcanic eruption.
- Earth
Mangled microfossils may mark impact sites
Scientists studying sediment cores drilled in eastern Virginia say they’ve possibly identified a new clue to the locations of ancient, hidden impact craters: Just look for broken or twisted microbial fossils.
- Earth
Presto, Change-o!
Compared with the snail's-pace processes that normally shape Earth's surface, the impacts of extraterrestrial objects change our planet's geology in a flash.
- Planetary Science
Odyssey’s Homer: Hints of water near both poles of Mars
Sensors on board the Mars Odyssey spacecraft have spied strong signs of ice buried near both poles of the Red Planet, exactly the regions where scientists previously had said that such frozen water deposits could exist.
- Earth
Mapping the Frozen Sky: Study looks at clouds from both sides now
By combining simultaneous observations from satellites and ground-based instruments, scientists can generate a three-dimensional map of the size and distribution of ice particles in a cirrus cloud.
- Humans
Science Derby: Student research and inventions nab awards
On May 12, more than 1,200 high school students came to Louisville, Ky., to vie for more than $3 million in scholarships and prizes at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair.
- Earth
September’s Science: Shutdown of airlines aided contrail studies
The shutdown of commerical aviation within the United States for 3 days after Sept. 11, 2001, provided scientists with a unique opportunity to study the influence of high-flying jet aircraft on Earth's climate.
- Earth
Tornado Alley, USA
A new model that simulates 30,000 years worth of tornadoes in the United States finds that the place not to be if you fear funnel clouds is southeastern Oklahoma, where any particular spot can expect to get damaged once every 4,000 years.
- Paleontology
Ancient Whodunit: Scientists indict wee suspects in ancient deaths
Evidence locked in 180,000-year-old sediments suggests that a toxic algae bloom was the cause of death for a large group of mammals that were fossilized intact on an ancient lake bottom.
- Earth
In case of temblor, run downhill
Computer models of the ground motions measured on a shallow hill during an earthquake suggest that, in certain circumstances, the ground movements could be magnified by as much as 10 times those measured on flat areas nearby.
