Sid Perkins
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Articles by Sid Perkins
Gamma rays flared as this lightning bolt formed
The collision of two lightning-bolts-in-the-making spawned an exceedingly brief but extremely energetic flash of gamma rays. This first-of-its-kind observation may help explain an origin of some of the most energetic radiation on Earth. Researchers have for years linked the production of gamma rays to the acceleration of electrons by strong electric fields in thunderstorms.
Even epic rainfall may not be enough to refill SoCal’s aquifers
Even though immense rains repeatedly pummeled California in 2023, they barely helped recharge aquifers drawn down by decades of drought and human pumping, a new study reveals. About one-third of the water supply in Los Angeles, which is susceptible to long dry spells, comes from groundwater. But in the first three months of 2023, more than a dozen atmospheric rivers — long, narrow weather systems chock full of water vapor — brought rainfall to the West Coast.
Over the past 2 years, Earth got hotter faster than ever before
It’s a record foretold: 2024 was the hottest year in human history, even hotter than the record-breaking year before it. Global surface temperatures were somewhere between 1.45°C and 1.6°C higher than the average from 1850 to 1900, multiple climate monitoring groups reported today. “We are now living in a very different climate from that which our parents and our grandparents experienced,” said Samantha Burgess, deputy director of Europe’s Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S).
Scientists identify a long-sought by-product of some drinking water treatments
Roughly one-third of Americans could be exposed to a long-sought, newly identified breakdown product of some chlorine-based water treatments. Although the toxicity of the by-product, an electrically charged molecule, is yet to be determined, analyses suggest the substance could have several detrimental health effects.
Barnard’s star has at least one planet orbiting it after all
A red dwarf star known as Barnard’s star, which lies a mere six light-years from our solar system, has at least one — and possibly a handful — of small rocky planets orbiting it, a new study suggests. Barnard’s star, which is about one-sixth the mass of our sun, is the closest individual star to our solar system. Only the three stars in the Alpha Centauri system are closer.
Starlink satellites’ leaky radio waves obscure the cosmos
While SpaceX’s Starlink satellites are enabling internet access and cell phone communications around the globe, they’re also posing a threat to radio astronomy, a new study suggests.
As Yellowstone’s supervolcano slumbers, another big danger lurks
Yellowstone National Park is known for its bubbling hot springs and steaming geysers. These hydrothermal wonders are powered by a massive cauldron of partly melted rock deep underground. It holds enough seething magma to build several Mount Everests. Yellowstone’s volcano last erupted 70,000 years ago. If it did so again, it could bury a vast area under lava. Most scientists consider this unlikely, at least for the next several thousand years.
A new book tackles AI hype - and how to spot it
Science News is collecting reader questions about how to navigate our planet's changing climate. What do you want to know about extreme heat and how it can lead to extreme weather events? That’s one small example of how AI fails. Arvind Narayanan and Sayash Kapoor collect dozens of others in their new book, AI Snake Oil — many with consequences far more concerning than irking one science journalist.
Zapping sand to create rock could help curb coastal erosion
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Zapping sand to create rock could help curb coastal erosion Original
Shorelines worldwide have always been vulnerable to coastal erosion, a phenomenon rendered more ominous by rising sea levels that accompany modern-day climate change (SN: 9/29/22). Coastal engineers have few ways to address this erosion, says Alessandro Rotta Loria, a civil engineer at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill. One method is to build a seawall; another is to truck in more sand once wave action sweeps away a beach’s supply. Neither approach works more than a few years, he notes.
Scientists are getting serious about UFOs. Here's why
For millennia, humans have seen inexplicable things in the sky. Some have been beautiful, some have been terrifying, and some — like auroras and solar eclipses before they were understood scientifically — have been both. Today’s aircraft, balloons, drones, satellites and more only increase the chances of spotting something confounding overhead. In the United States, unidentified flying objects, or UFOs, came into the national spotlight in the late 1940s and early ’50s.
In a seafloor surprise, metal-rich chunks may generate deep-sea oxygen
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In a seafloor surprise, metal-rich chunks may generate deep-sea oxygen Original
In an unexpected twist, metal-rich nodules found on the seafloor are generating oxygen, new research suggests. This meager but steady supply of the vital gas may help support seafloor ecosystems in areas currently targeted for deep-sea mining, scientists say. Scientists have long presumed that much of the dissolved oxygen in the deep sea was transported there from surface waters.
Plants might not hold on to carbon as long as we thought
Science News has partnered with Trusting News to gather feedback on the potential use of AI in journalism. Currently, we do not publish any content produced by generative AI (see our policy). We do want to hear your views on how Science News could use AI responsibly. Let us know by participating in a short 10 question survey. In July 1945, the United States detonated the first plutonium bomb. That “Trinity” test kicked off decades of nuclear weapon tests, particularly in the 1950s and early 1960s.
An ancient earthquake changed the course of the Ganges River
India’s Ganges River shifted abruptly due to a distant yet massive earthquake around 2,500 years ago, new geologic evidence suggests. Such changes have been observed in other rivers in recent times but only far upstream. This ancient Ganges shift occurred in the delta, about 200 kilometers from where the river empties into the Bay of Bengal. Flooding from similar shifts of other rivers today could threaten hundreds of millions of people who live in the modern cities built on river deltas worldwide.
Surprise! These animals can help fight climate change
You’ll need to watch your step if you walk through a eucalypt forest in Australia. The ground is likely to be full of pits and covered in mounds of soil. That uneven terrain is an important sign of climate warriors at work. Echidnas (Eh-KID-nuhz) and other digging mammals made those mounds and pits. In search of food, they dig holes and fling soil into piles along the way. And those holes play a big role in keeping carbon dioxide (CO2) out of the air.
Experiment: Make your own cents-able battery
aluminum: A metallic element, the third most abundant in Earth’s crust. It is light and soft, and used in many items from bicycles to spacecraft. ampere: A rate of electrical current equal to one coulomb per second. attention: The phenomenon of focusing mental resources on a specific object or event. battery: A device that can convert chemical energy into electrical energy. ceramic: A hard but brittle material made by firing clay or some other non-metal-based mineral at a high temperature.
Earthquake sensor: Taylor Swift fans ‘Shake It Off’
Taylor Swift fans really know how to “Shake It Off” — and shake the ground. Scientists studied how the stadium and ground trembled during one of Swift’s Eras Tour concerts last August. They found that dancing fans generated vibrations in the ground — seismic waves that matched the beat of each song. The team shared its findings March 13 in Seismological Research Letters.
Scientists Say: Supercontinent
continent: (in geology) The huge land masses that sit upon tectonic plates. In modern times, there are six established geologic continents: North America, South America, Eurasia, Africa, Australia and Antarctica. In 2017, scientists also made the case for yet another: Zealandia. crust: (in geology) Earth's outermost surface, usually made from dense, solid rock (in planetary science) the outermost surface of rocky planets, dwarf planets and natural satellites.
Which way is up? Insects may lose track near artificial lights
biodiversity: (short for biological diversity) The number and variety of species found within a localized geographic region. biologist: A scientist involved in the study of living things. bug: The slang term for an insect. Sometimes it’s even used to refer to a germ. (in computing) Slang term for a glitch in computer code, the instructions that direct the operations of a computer. canopy: (in botany) The top layer of a tree — or forest — where the tallest branches overlap.
New class of ‘ozone-safe’ refrigerants may have unexpected downside
Call it a case of unintended consequences. In 2013, a new class of chemical refrigerants—used to cool everything from homes to freezers—replaced the ones that were destroying the ozone layer. But a study published this week finds that some of the new compounds, known as hydrofluoroolefins, (HFOs) can create fluoroform, a gas that has a global warming potential 14,800 times worse than carbon dioxide.
Crabs left the sea not once, but several times, in their evolution
Most terrestrial plants and animals left the ocean a single time in their evolutionary history to live ashore. But crabs have seemingly scuttled out of the sea more than a dozen times, with at least two groups later reverting back to a marine lifestyle, a study finds.
Experiment: How well do different materials create static electricity?
aluminum: A metallic element, the third most abundant in Earth’s crust. It is light and soft, and used in many items from bicycles to spacecraft. average: (in science) A term for the arithmetic mean, which is the sum of a group of numbers that is then divided by the size of the group. axis: (in mathematics) The line to the side or bottom of a graph. It is labeled to explain the graph’s meaning and the units of measurement.
The last 12 months were the hottest on record
The last 12 months were the hottest in 150 years of recordkeeping — and probably in the last 125,000 years — thanks to human-caused climate change, a new report finds. From November 2022 through October 2023, the planet’s average temperature was about 1.3 degrees Celsius higher than the average temperature from 1850 to 1900, say researchers with the nonprofit group Climate Central.
You can get involved in science during the 2024 solar eclipse
angle: The space (usually measured in degrees) between two intersecting lines or surfaces at or close to the point where they meet. app: Short for application, or a computer program designed for a specific task. astronomer: A scientist who works in the field of research that deals with celestial objects, space and the physical universe. astrophysicist: A scientist who works in an area of astronomy that deals with understanding the physical nature of stars and other objects in space.
Rock from the impact that formed the moon may linger in Earth’s mantle
About 4.5 billion years ago, a Mars-sized object smashed into the young Earth, spraying debris that coalesced to form the moon, many scientists think. Some remnants of that object, called Theia, exist today as large amounts of dense material sitting atop Earth’s core, researchers propose November 1 in Nature.
Rock from the impact that formed the moon may linger in Earth’s mantle
https://www.sciencenews.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/103123_sp_moon-forming_collision_feat-800x450.jpg About 4.5 billion years ago, a Mars-sized object smashed into the young Earth, spraying debris that coalesced to form the moon, many scientists think. Some remnants of that object, called Theia, exist today as large amounts of dense material sitting atop Earth’s core, researchers propose November 1 in Nature.
How giant mirrors are made for what will be the world's largest telescope
TUCSON — Hot and dry air, perfused with a scent reminiscent of a warmed hair straightener, stuffed a hangar-sized room beneath the football stadium at the University of Arizona. The space, part of the Richard F. Caris Mirror Lab, was dominated by a gyrating, carousel-sized furnace, fire truck red and shaped like a flying saucer. The swirling cocoon of a colossal light collector.
Scientists Say: Vertebrate
amphibians: A group of animals that includes frogs, salamanders and caecilians. Amphibians have backbones and can breathe through their skin. Unlike reptiles, birds and mammals, unborn or unhatched amphibians do not develop in a special protective sac called an amniotic sac. birds: Warm-blooded animals with wings that first showed up during the time of the dinosaurs. Birds are jacketed in feathers and produce young from the eggs they deposit in some sort of nest.
Dinosaur feathers may have been more birdlike than previously thought
Many feathered dinosaurs couldn’t fly — at least, not like birds do today. But the reptiles’ feathers may have been more birdlike than scientists thought. In 2019, fossil analyses found that feathers from a flightless dinosaur mostly contained a different, more flexible form of the keratin protein that makes up modern bird beaks, scales and feathers.
Scientists Say: Ultrasonic
echo: To bounce back. For example, sound bouncing off walls of a tunnel, and returning to their source. Radio waves emitted above the surface can also bounce off the bedrock underneath an ice sheet — then return to the surface. Or ideas or events that seem to reflect one or more others, as a reverberating sound might. echolocation: (in animals) A behavior in which animals emit calls and then listen to the echoes that bounce back off of solid things in the environment.
Here’s another strike against Venus having copious lightning
Venus has long been depicted as having a hellish atmosphere. Despite that reputation, evidence increasingly suggests that our neighbor’s cloudy shroud isn’t riddled with lightning. Last month, planetary scientists proposed that most if not all of the bright flashes observed in Venus’ atmosphere could be explained by meteors (SN: 9/11/23). Now, a separate team suggests that whistling electromagnetic waves often created by lightning on Earth and other planets are not sparked by lightning on Venus.
Here’s another strike against Venus having copious lightning
Venus has long been depicted as having a hellish atmosphere. Despite that reputation, evidence increasingly suggests that our neighbor’s cloudy shroud isn’t riddled with lightning. Last month, planetary scientists proposed that most if not all of the bright flashes observed in Venus’ atmosphere could be explained by meteors (SN: 9/11/23). Now, a separate team suggests that whistling electromagnetic waves often created by lightning on Earth and other planets are not sparked by lightning on Venus.
In a first, genetically modified silkworms produced pure spider silk
Spider silk is prized for its unrivaled strength and toughness. But figuring out a way to mass-produce it is no easy feat. Spiders cannot be put to work to pump out the fibers the way silkworms can: They’re extremely territorial and inclined to eat their neighbors, and they refuse to keep at the task for long.
Gene editing can make chickens resistant to bird flu
Chickens genetically modified to be impervious to bird flu may one day prevent the spread of the disease on farms, a study suggests. Just small tweaks to a single gene made chickens resistant to an avian influenza infection, researchers report October 10 in Nature Communications. The gene, known as ANP32A, provides the instructions that tell chicken cells how to make a protein that flu viruses rely on to successfully hijack cells.
Hippos’ oversize front teeth make it hard for them to chew
Hippos are horrible at chewing, and their giant tusks and front teeth are to blame. These intimidating dental features are used by hippos, in part, to protect themselves and their territory. But some of the gnarly teeth interlock or hinder jaw movements, preventing hippos from efficiently chewing with the side-to-side grinding technique that other herbivores use, researchers report October 4 in PLOS ONE.
In noisy environs, pied tamarins are using smell more often to communicate
Native to the Brazilian Amazon, pied tamarins have always used vocal calls to communicate. But noise pollution from car traffic and other human activity are forcing some tamarins to complement those voice calls with smell markings to alert others to dangers, researchers report September 20 in Ethology Ecology & Evolution. Most pied tamarins (Saguinus bicolor) live in Manaus, Brazil, inhabiting fragmented patches of forest scattered around urban environments.
The right bacterial mix could help frogs take the heat
Some of a green frog’s heat tolerance might come from its microbiome. Put a wood frog tadpole and a green frog tadpole in water and turn up the heat. The two species live in similar environments, but green frog tadpoles just keep swimming in water that’s up to 1.5 degrees Celsius warmer. But when scientists transferred the gut microbiome of a green frog (Lithobates clamitans) to the eggs of a wood frog (L.
This massive ancient whale may be the heaviest animal ever known
behemoth: A term for anything that is amazingly big. The term comes from a monstrous animal described in the Bible’s book of Job. blue whale: A species of baleen whale (Balaenoptera musculus) that is the largest animal ever known to have existed. They can grow to lengths of 30 meters (almost 100 feet) and weigh up to 170 metric tons. buoyant: (n. buoyancy) An adjective for something that can float on or rise above some liquid or gas.
A one-of-a-kind trilobite fossil hints at what and how these creatures ate
A mysterious, prehistoric marine creature has spilled its guts. For the first time, scientists have unearthed a fossilized trilobite whose final meals were preserved within its digestive system. Paleontologist Valéria Vaškaninová and colleagues discovered the partially digested meals when they looked at a high-resolution 3-D scan of Bohemolichas incola, a previously known but relatively rare trilobite species that lived 465 million years ago.
A one-of-a-kind trilobite fossil hints at what and how these creatures ate
https://www.sciencenews.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/092723_sp_trilobite-diet_trilobite_feat-800x450.jpg A mysterious, prehistoric marine creature has spilled its guts. For the first time, scientists have unearthed a fossilized trilobite whose final meals were preserved within its digestive system.
This egg-eater may have the biggest gulp of any snake its size
3-D: Short for three-dimensional. This term is an adjective for something that has features that can be described in three dimensions — height, width and length. biologist: A scientist involved in the study of living things. evolve: (adj. evolving) To change gradually over generations, or a long period of time. In living organisms, such an evolution usually involves random changes to genes that will then be passed along to an individual’s offspring.
Earth’s future supercontinent may be too hot for most mammals
Earth has a supercontinent in its future. In about 250 million years, all of today’s major land masses will pile together into one, just as they did about 300 million years ago to form Pangaea. And when they do, new simulations suggest, it could tip our planet’s climate into an extremely hot state almost entirely uninhabitable for mammals. Earth’s surface is a jigsaw of solid rock slabs called tectonic plates, which float over the gooey rocks in the planet’s upper mantle.
‘Mind-boggling’ sea creature spotted off Japan has finally been identified
When Ryo Minemizu, a professional underwater photographer, posted photos of an elegant ladybug-size flittering creature off Okinawa, Japan, in 2018, biologists were baffled. It wasn’t a worm, a mollusk, or a crustacean. What was it? No one knew. One of those intrigued was Igor Adameyko, a developmental neurobiologist at the Medical University of Vienna.
NASA’s OSIRIS-REx is poised to return bits of the asteroid Bennu to Earth
Seven years is a long time to wait for your carrier service to deliver a package. That’s how long it’s been since NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft set off to gather rocks and dust from the asteroid Bennu. But the package is now nearly out for delivery. On September 24, the spacecraft will fly near Earth and drop off a capsule containing material collected from Bennu in October 2020 — if all goes well (SN: 10/21/20).
A new technique creates glowing whole-body maps of mice
anatomy: The study of the organs and tissues of animals. Or the characterization of the body or parts of the body on the basis of structure and tissues. Scientists who work in this field are known as anatomists. antibodies: Any of a large number of proteins that the body produces from B cells and releases into the blood supply as part of its immune response. The production of antibodies is triggered when the body encounters an antigen, some foreign material.
Peak solar activity is arriving sooner than expected, reaching levels not seen in 20 years
In 2019, as the Sun approached a minimum in its 11-year cycle of magnetic activity, a dozen scientists assembled for a traditional exercise: forecasting the next peak. Now, a few years into the Sun’s resurgence, it’s becoming clear that the official prediction from the panel, convened by NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and the International Space Environment Service (ISES), missed the mark.
New fossils bring the wide world of pterosaurs to life
anatomy: (adj. anatomical) The study of the organs and tissues of animals. Or the characterization of the body or parts of the body on the basis of structure and tissues. Scientists who work in this field are known as anatomists. ancestor: A predecessor. It could be a family forebear, such as a parent, grandparent or great-great-great grandparent. Or it could be a species, genus, family or other order of organisms from which some later one evolved.
Flashes in Venus’ atmosphere might be meteors, not lightning
Occasional flashes light up Venus’ shroud of clouds. Previous analyses have hinted that the bursts of light could be lightning in the hellish world’s atmosphere. But a new study suggests most of the flashes may be nothing more than the brief yet brilliant blazes of meteors. With upcoming missions planned for Venus, scientists are eager to figure out the light’s origin (SN: 6/2/21).
Flashes in Venus’ atmosphere might be meteors, not lightning
https://www.sciencenews.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/090623_sp_venus-lightning-meteors_feat-800x450.jpg Occasional flashes light up Venus’ shroud of clouds. Previous analyses have hinted that the bursts of light could be lightning in the hellish world’s atmosphere. But a new study suggests most of the flashes may be nothing more than the brief yet brilliant blazes of meteors. With upcoming missions planned for Venus, scientists are eager to figure out the light’s origin (SN: 6/2/21).
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