All Stories by Carolyn Gramling
- Agriculture
Deeply plowing farm fields can do more harm than good
Heavy plowing can impair water’s flow through the ground. The problem was found by “listening” to tiny seismic signals caused by rain infiltrating the soil.
- Animals
Emperor penguins are on the march — toward extinction
Along with Antarctic fur seals, these iconic birds, the largest of all penguins, are now endangered by their continent’s warming.
- Science & Society
Volcanic ash might have helped spread the Black Death to Europe
A volcanic eruption might have triggered events that led Italy to import grain — food that arrived in ships infested with plague-infected rats.
- Fossils
Newfound fossil is not a teen T. rex but a whole new species
Now known as Nanotyrannus, this mini dino could have roamed the late Cretaceous alongside T. rex.
- Climate
Global coral die-offs signal Earth’s first climate tipping point
The corals offer a dire warning, scientists say, and suggests that more such catastrophic points of no return could occur soon — some within a decade.
- Fossils
Baby pterosaurs likely died in violent Jurassic storms
Two hatchlings with broken arm bones point to ancient storms as the cause of mass casualties now preserved in Germany’s Solnhofen Limestone.
- Earth
This ‘megaflash’ is now the longest lightning bolt on record
A reanalysis of satellite data showed that a 2017 Texas-to-Missouri lightning megaflash stretched 829 kilometers (515 miles) and lasted 7.39 seconds.
- Fossils
Could Spinosaurus swim? That would make it a game changer
Spinosaurus fossils are challenging the longstanding claim that ancient dinosaurs were never fully aquatic. And some paleontologists still aren’t convinced.
- Climate
2024 set new record for hottest year, passing a dangerous heat threshold
For the first year in recorded history, Earth’s average temperature topped 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels.
- Climate
Meet Chonkus, a mutant microbe that could help fight climate change
A hulking marine cyanobacterium, Chonkus has traits that appears to make it especially good for storing away carbon on the ocean floor.
- Earth
Earthquakes upped the death toll at Pompeii
Broken bodies found at a house in Pompeii suggest that earthquakes played a role in the legendary tragedy.
- Earth
Surprise! The jet stream can trigger cloud formation
Most cloud-seeding particles may come from a newly discovered mechanism — stratospheric intrusion.
