All Stories by Sid Perkins
- Paleontology
Duck-faced croc had a gap-toothed grin
Paleontologists have unearthed fossils of a tiny crocodile that boasted a smile like no other: The animal had no teeth across the entire front of its mouth.
- Earth
Avalanche!
Laboratory studies of how snow crystals change shape under fluctuating environmental conditions and computer analyses that match the patterns of past avalanches with detailed meteorological data are helping scientists uncover the secrets of avalanches.
- Paleontology
No Olympian: Analysis hints T. rex ran slowly, if at all
Tyrannosaurus rex, a bipedal meat eater considered by many to be the most fearsome dinosaur of its day, may not have been the swift Jeep-chaser portrayed by Hollywood.
- Earth
El Niño’s coming! Is that so bad?
Although El Niño is often blamed for ill effects that total billions of dollars, a broader analysis suggests that the United States garners substantial benefits during this weather pattern.
- Humans
And Counting . . . : Latest census resets U.S. population clock
The 2000 census missed a little more than 1 percent of the nation’s population, due in part to a surge of undocumented immigrants to the United States in the late 1990s.
- Earth
Shuttle yields detailed, 3-D atlas
NASA scientists and Defense Department mapmakers are assembling billions of radar measurements made from the space shuttle Endeavour to produce what they say will be the world’s best topographic map.
- Paleontology
Dinosaur tracks show walking and running
A single trail of dinosaur footprints found in a British limestone quarry preserves a record of two different walking styles in the same animal, a tantalizing clue that some types of lumbering, bipedal dinosaurs could also run if the need arose.
- Materials Science
Better Stainless: Analysis could bring pits out of the steel
The key to developing pit-resistant stainless steel is to correct the dearth of chromium atoms around inclusions in the alloy.
- Earth
Hard rock jellies: Throng of rare fossils found in Midwest quarry
A Wisconsin sandstone quarry recently served up a rare scientific find nearly a half billion years in the making: fossils of an armada of jellyfish that stud the site’s stone slabs.
- Health & Medicine
An El Niño link with a tropical disease?
An analysis of recent outbreaks of an often fatal disease in Peru may strengthen a link between the malady and the warming of the tropical Pacific Ocean known as El Niño.
- Humans
Storm warnings take new tone of voice
The National Weather Service is now testing new computer-generated voices that will be used in the agency's broadcasts of severe storm warnings on NOAA Weather Radio.
- Earth
New way of gauging reservoir evaporation
Scientists have developed a new way to estimate the evaporation of water from large reservoirs that, if adopted, would replace a labor-intensive procedure based on decades-old technology.
