All Stories by Sid Perkins
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EarthEarth is reflecting less light. It’s not clear if that’s a trend
A decrease in Earth’s reflectance shows our planet is absorbing more solar radiation, but it’s not clear if the trend will last.
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ChemistryRadiometric dating puts pieces of the past in context. Here’s how
Carbon dating and other techniques answer essential questions about human history, our planet and the solar system.
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PaleontologyFossil tracks may reveal an ancient elephant nursery
Fossilized footprints at a site in Spain include those of an extinct elephant’s newborns, suggesting the animals may have used the area as a nursery.
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SpaceJupiter’s intense auroras superheat its upper atmosphere
Jupiter’s hotter-than-expected upper atmosphere may be caused by high-speed charged particles slamming into the air high above the poles.
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Planetary ScienceMarsquakes reveal the Red Planet boasts a liquid core half its diameter
Analyses of seismic waves picked up by NASA’s InSight lander shed new light on the planet’s core and give clues to the thickness of the crust.
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ClimateCollapse may not always be inevitable for marine ice cliffs
Runaway collapse of ice cliffs could dramatically boost sea level. But these cliffs may not be so vulnerable, new simulations suggest.
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EarthA new book uses stories from tsunami survivors to decode deadly waves
In ‘Tsunami: The World’s Greatest Waves,’ two scientists chronical hundreds of eyewitness accounts to show the human cost of life at the water’s edge.
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AnimalsNewly recognized tricks help elephants suck up huge amounts of water
New ultrasound imaging reveals what goes on inside a pachyderm’s trunk while feeding. It can snort water at the rate of 24 shower heads.
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PaleontologyT. rex’s incredible biting force came from its stiff lower jaw
T. rex could generate incredibly strong bite forces thanks to a boomerang-shaped bone that stiffened the lower jaw, a new analysis suggests.
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ClimateClimate change may have changed the direction of the North Pole’s drift
A mid-1990s shift in the movement of the pole was driven by glacial melt, in part caused by climate change, among other factors, a new study reports.
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Planetary ScienceEarth sweeps up 5,200 tons of extraterrestrial dust each year
Thousands of micrometeorites collected from Antarctica come from both comets and asteroids, a new study suggests.
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Planetary ScienceA meteor may have exploded over Antarctica 430,000 years ago
Tiny spherules recovered from a mountaintop suggest a space rock broke apart midflight and sprayed debris across thousands of kilometers.