All Stories by Sid Perkins
- Earth
Pollution in India may affect climate
Computer models show that air pollution over India could be preventing up to 15 percent of the sunlight from reaching the ground in the springtime, possibly causing temperature drops of up to 2 degrees Celsius.
- Earth
Y2K: One of the hottest, wettest yet
Preliminary data from the National Climatic Data Center indicate the year 2000 will be one of the six hottest and one of the ten wettest years on record.
- Paleontology
Genes Seem to Link Unlikely Relatives
Genetic markers on three proteins suggest a common African ancestor for elephants, aardvarks, elephant shrews, golden moles, and other animals.
- Paleontology
Subway dig in L.A. yields fossil trove
Fossil finds made when a subway line was extended from Los Angeles into the San Fernando Valley include bones of mastodons, ground sloths, extinct bison and camels, and 39 new species of fish.
- Earth
Can Banking Carbon Cool the Greenhouse?
Stockpiling carbon dioxide in plants and soil may be effective only for the short term, if at all.
- Paleontology
Fossil birds sport a new kind of feather
Two fossil specimens of a primitive, starling-size bird that lived about 125 million years ago have tail feathers that may hold the clues to how feathers originated.
- Earth
Life Landed 2.6 Billion Years Ago
Unusually carbon-rich rocks found in eastern South Africa may push back the evidence of life on land to 2.6 billion years ago, more than twice the current age of indisputably terrestrial organisms.
- 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.
- Earth
New database describes all the marbles
Analyses of the isotope ratios of carbon and oxygen in hundreds of samples of Greek marble may help researchers identify the quarries that supplied the stone for some of Europe's most famous statues and architecture.
-
Lamprey cyborg sees the light and responds
Researchers have paired the brain of a sea lamprey with a small robot that can detect and move around in response to light.
- Paleontology
Did ancient wildfire end in barbecue?
Small pieces of large bones and petrified wood that show distinct signs of being burned may be evidence of a 74-million-year-old wildfire in central Wyoming.
- Paleontology
The last ice age wasn’t totally icy
Radiocarbon dating of fossils taken from caves on islands along Alaska's southeastern coast suggest that at least a portion of the area remained ice-free during the last ice age.
