Sid Perkins

Sid Perkins is a freelance science writer based in Crossville, Tenn.

All Stories by Sid Perkins

  1. Paleontology

    For past climate clues, ask a stalag-mite

    Mites fossilized in cave formations in the American Southwest show that at times during the past 3,200 years the climate there was much wetter and cooler.

  2. Earth

    Atlantic coast may be in for a pounding

    The above-average number and strength of hurricanes in the North Atlantic during the past 6 years may signal the beginning of a threatening weather trend for the United States, the Caribbean, and Central America.

  3. Earth

    New type of hydrothermal vent looms large

    The discovery of a new type of hydrothermal vent system on an undersea mountain in the Atlantic Ocean suggests that submarine hydrothermal activity may be much more widespread than previously thought.

  4. Earth

    The Silence of the Bams

    If a nuclear explosion were set off in a cavity of the right size and shape, even a moderate-sized nuclear bomb might appear at long distances to be no bigger than a routine explosion used in mining.

  5. Earth

    Atlanta leaves big chemical footprint

    A new analysis of water quality downstream of Atlanta shows that some pollutants from the city are still detectable in the river more than 500 kilometers away.

  6. Earth

    Amazon forest could disappear, soon

    A new model that includes a forest's effect on regional climate shows that the Amazon rainforest could disappear in the next three decades, much more rapidly than previously expected.

  7. Earth

    Is Nessie merely a bad case of the shakes?

    An Italian scientist makes the controversial suggestion that the original source of the legend of the Loch Ness Monster, as well as blame for many of the modern encounters with the supposed beast, may be seismic activity beneath the lake.

  8. Paleontology

    Sahara yields second-largest dinosaur

    Excavations near an Egyptian oasis have unearthed the fossils of an animal that probably ranks as the second-most-massive dinosaur known.

  9. Paleontology

    Fossil footprints could be monumental

    Trace fossils found in a vacant lot in a small town in Utah, including the footprints of meat-eating dinosaurs, could soon be protected as part of a new U.S. national monument.

  10. Earth

    Alaska’s coastal permafrost is eroding

    Aerial photographs taken over the past 50 years show that Alaska's coastlines of permafrost aren't that permanent after all.

  11. Earth

    More acid rain in East Asia’s future

    Large increases in Asian industrial emissions of nitrogen oxides in the next 30 years could lead to a tripling of the acid rain there due to those pollutants.

  12. Earth

    Midlatitude bogs store carbon best

    Sediments in lakes and bogs along the eastern coast of the United States show that midlatitude bodies of water have sequestered higher amounts of carbon than others since the last ice age.