All Stories by Carolyn Gramling
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PaleontologyFeathers may have helped dinosaurs survive the Triassic mass extinction
New data show that dinosaurs were able to weather freezing conditions about 202 million years ago, probably thanks to warm feathery coats.
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PaleontologyVampire squid are gentle blobs. But this ancestor was a fierce hunter
New fossil analyses of 164-million-year-old ancestors of today’s vampire squid show the ancient cephalopods had muscular bodies and powerful suckers.
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ChemistryA pigment’s shift in chemistry robbed a painted yellow rose of its brilliance
The degradation of an arsenic-based paint stripped shadows and light from a still life flower in a 17th century work by painter Abraham Mignon.
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PaleontologyHow mammals took over the world
In the book The Rise and Reign of the Mammals, paleontologist Steve Brusatte tracks the evolutionary innovations that made mammals so successful.
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PaleontologyGreat white sharks may have helped drive megalodons to extinction
Analyzing zinc levels in shark teeth hints that megalodons and great whites competed with each other for food.
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ClimateScientists hope to mimic the most extreme hurricane conditions
A $12.8 million NSF grant is funding the design of a facility that can generate winds of at least 290 kilometers per hour and towering storm surges.
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EarthMachine learning and gravity signals could rapidly detect big earthquakes
Large earthquakes make speed-of-light adjustments to Earth’s gravitational field. Researchers have now trained computers to detect the signals.
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ClimateReplacing some meat with microbial protein could help fight climate change
Just a 20 percent substitution could cut deforestation rates and land-use CO2 emissions by more than half by 2050, a new study suggests.
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PaleontologyPterosaurs may have had brightly colored feathers on their heads
The fossil skull of a flying reptile hints that feathers originated about 100 million years earlier than scientists thought.
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PaleontologyGlowing spider fossils may exist thanks to tiny algae’s goo
Analyzing 22-million-year-old spider fossils from France revealed that they were covered in a tarry black substance that fluoresces.
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ClimateClimate change intensified deadly storms in Africa in early 2022
Tropical storms battered southeast Africa in quick succession from January through March, leading to hundreds of deaths and widespread damage.
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ClimateA UN report says stopping climate change is possible but action is needed now
We already have a broad array of tools to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030, a new report finds. Now we just have to use them.