Nikk Ogasa
Science News
Santa Cruz, CA, United States
Contact Nikk
Discover and connect with journalists and influencers around the world, save time on email research, monitor the news, and more.
| Recent: |
|
| Past: |
|
Past articles by Nikk:
Wildfires in boreal forests released a record amount of CO2 in 2021
Boreal forests store about one-third of the world’s land-based carbon. With wildfires increasing there, fighting climate change could get even harder. → Read More
An incendiary form of lightning may surge under climate change
Relatively long-lived lightning strikes are the most likely to spark wildfires and may become more common as the climate warms. → Read More
Climate ‘teleconnections’ may link droughts and fires across continents
Far-reaching climate patterns like the El Niño-Southern Oscillation may synchronize droughts and regulate scorching of much of Earth’s burned area. → Read More
In the wake of history’s deadliest mass extinction, ocean life may have flourished
Ocean life may have recovered in just a million years after the Permian-Triassic mass extinction, fossils from South China suggest. → Read More
Earth’s inner core may be reversing its rotation
In the past 13 years, the rotation of the planet’s solid inner core may have temporarily stopped and then started to reverse direction. → Read More
Cyclones in the Arctic are becoming more intense and frequent
Over the last 70 years, boreal storms have steadily grown stronger. And climate change may make them worse, threatening both people and sea ice. → Read More
How rare earth elements make modern technology possible
Because of their unique chemistry, the rare earth elements can fine-tune light for many different purposes and generate powerful magnetic fields. → Read More
Rare ‘dark lightning’ might briefly touch passengers when flying
Gamma-ray blasts from thunderstorms might occasionally zap passing airplanes, briefly exposing passengers to unsafe levels of radiation. → Read More
Io may have an underworld magma ocean or a hot metal heart
New calculations support dueling ideas for what powers the ubiquitous volcanoes on the hellish surface of Jupiter’s innermost moon. → Read More
The last vital ingredient for life has been discovered on Enceladus
The underground ocean on Saturn’s icy moon may contain phosphorus in concentrations thousands of times greater than those found in Earth’s ocean. → Read More
2022's biggest climate change bill pushes clean energy
Experts weigh in on the pros and cons of the United States’ first major climate change legislation, the Inflation Reduction Act, signed this year. → Read More
50 years ago, physicists found the speed of light
In the 1970s, scientists set a new maximum speed limit for light. Fifty years later, they continue putting light through its paces. → Read More
How to make tiny metal snowflakes
In a pool of molten gallium, researchers grew symmetrical, hexagonal zinc nanostructures that resemble natural snowflakes. → Read More
This dinosaur may have had a body like a duck's
Natovenator polydontus may have been adapted for life in the water, challenging the popular idea that all dinos were landlubbers. → Read More
Tiger sharks helped discover the world’s largest seagrass prairie
Instrument-equipped sharks went where divers couldn’t to survey the Bahama Banks seagrass ecosystem. → Read More
Greenland’s frozen hinterlands are bleeding worse than we thought
An inland swath of the Northeast Greenland Ice Stream is accelerating and thinning. It could contribute much more to sea level rise than estimated. → Read More
Catastrophic solar storms may not explain shadows of radiation in trees
Tree rings record six known Miyake events — spikes in global radiation levels in the past. The sun, as long presumed, might not be the sole culprit. → Read More
Mixing gold ions into whiskey can reveal its flavor
By changing the spirit’s color, the formation of gold nanoparticles can reveal how much flavor a whiskey has absorbed from its wood cask. → Read More
Here’s where jazz gets its swing
Swing, the feeling of a rhythm in jazz music that compels feet to tap, may arise from near-imperceptible delays in musicians’ timing, a study shows. → Read More
A way to snap molecules together like Lego wins 2022 chemistry Nobel
Click chemistry and bioorthogonal chemistry allow scientists to build complex molecules in the lab and in living cells. → Read More