All Stories by Nikk Ogasa
- Climate
Here’s how 2023 became the hottest year on record
The effects of climate change were on clear display in 2023 as records not only broke, but did so by surprising amounts.
- Space
A telescope dropped dark matter data from the edge of space. Here’s why
Last May, NASA’s Super Pressure Balloon Imaging Telescope crash-landed in rural Argentina. Scientists scrambled to recover the dark matter data aboard.
- Environment
Grassland and shrubland fires destroy more U.S. homes than forest fires
Grassland and shrubland fires destroyed nearly 11,000 homes in the contiguous United States from 1990 to 2020.
- Space
How giant mirrors are made for what will be the world’s largest telescope
The Giant Magellan Telescope is slated to probe the cosmos for Earthlike worlds and atmospheric signatures of potential extraterrestrial life.
- Animals
Pumping cold water into rivers could act as ‘air conditioning’ for fish
Hundreds of salmon, trout and other fish sought shelter from summer heat in human-made shelters, suggesting a way to help fish adapt to river warming.
- Earth
To form pink diamonds, build and destroy a supercontinent
The Argyle deposit in Australia formed about 1.3 billion years ago, a study shows, along a rift zone that sundered the supercontinent Nuna.
- Paleontology
This newfound birdlike dinosaur had surprisingly long legs
Early birdlike dinosaurs are mostly short-limbed and thought to have lived in trees, but Fujianvenator prodigiosus may have run or waded in swamps.
- Animals
Adult corals have been safely frozen and revived for the first time
Chunks of living corals could be frozen for safekeeping and revived later to restore reef ecosystems that are withering in warming seas.
- Climate
Some leaves in tropical forests may be getting too hot for photosynthesis
Climate change may be forcing some tropical leaves to stop photosynthesis and die. It’s still unclear what effect this will have on entire forests.
- Space
Recoiling black holes could move at nearly one-tenth the speed of light
Knowing black holes’ speed after being kicked by gravitational waves can reveal how much energy converging black holes can release.
- Climate
July 2023 nailed an unfortunate world record: hottest month ever recorded
Roughly 6.5 billion people, or 4 out of 5 humans, felt the touch of climate change via hotter temperatures during July.
- Climate
Here’s how much climate change increases the odds of brutally hot summers
Climate change made 2023’s record-breaking heat waves in the United States, Mexico, China and southern Europe much more likely, new simulations show.
