All Stories by Nikk Ogasa
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PaleontologyThis ancient, Lovecraftian apex predator chased and pierced soft prey
Half a billion years ago, Anomalocaris canadensis probably used its bizarre headgear to reach out and snag soft prey with its spiky clutches.
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ClimateThe snow forest of North America may be about to shrink
From 2000 to 2019, the boreal forest’s northern boundary didn’t move while southern tree cover thinned due to climate change, wildfires and logging.
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EcosystemsThe Amazon might not have a ‘tipping point.’ But it’s still in trouble
Scientists race to foretell the fate of the vast forest facing deforestation and climate change.
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EnvironmentRising groundwater threatens to spread toxic pollution on U.S. coastlines
Sea level rise is pushing groundwater into shallower layers of earth, threatening to spread hazardous chemicals from contaminated soils.
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Life50 years ago, flesh-eating screwworms pushed scientists to mass produce flies
"Fly factories” dreamed up in the early 1970s have helped North and Central America keep screwworms in check for decades.
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Planetary ScienceJupiter’s lightning bolts contort the same way as Earth’s
Jovian lightning extends in jagged steps as it does on Earth, data from NASA’s Juno spacecraft suggest. The finding might aid the search for life.
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TechDeblina Sarkar is building microscopic machines to enter our brains
The ultratiny devices can communicate wirelessly from inside living cells and may one day help cure brain diseases.
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Planetary ScienceSaturn’s rings may be no more than 400 million years old
An analysis of data from NASA’s defunct Cassini probe suggests Saturn's rings materialized more than 100 million years after trilobites appeared on Earth.
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EnvironmentMore than half of the world’s largest lakes are drying up
Satellite data from 1992 to 2020 reveal that 53 percent of the world’s largest freshwater bodies shrank during that period while only 24 percent grew.
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ClimateThawing permafrost may unleash industrial pollution across the Arctic
As the frozen ground warms due to climate change, industrial pollutants could flow free from thousands of sites across the Arctic.
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Planetary ScienceSeismic waves crossing Mars’ core reveal details of the Red Planet’s heart
NASA’s InSight lander observed a quake and an impact on the farside of Mars, allowing researchers to measure physical properties of the planet’s core.
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Planetary ScienceBaby Jupiter glowed so brightly it might have desiccated its moon
During its infancy, Jupiter may have glowed about 10 thousand times brighter than it does today, which may explain why its moon Io is completely dry.