Nikk Ogasa

Santa Cruz, Tucson

Sciences Journalist and Writer at Science News

physical sciences writer @ScienceNews | covering forces of nature, the climate crisis, environmental solutions, Earth's innards and alien worlds

Articles

Skyborne specks of life may influence rainfall patterns

3 days ago | sciencenews.org | Nikk Ogasa

Sprinklings of life appear key to the recipe for rain. Lofted flecks of organic material like bacteria, pollen and fungal spores play a profound role in regulating rainfall patterns, a new study suggests. These bioparticles can make up a major portion of all the particles that can seed rain in the sky, and their levels fluctuate in a daily cycle, researchers report May 5 in npj Climate and Atmospheric Science.
Before altering the air, microbes oxygenated large swaths of the sea

1 week ago | sciencenews.org | Nikk Ogasa

Ancient oxygen-making microbes may have oxygenated large swaths of Earth’s seafloor hundreds of millions of years before the element filled the atmosphere. Geochemical analysis of sediments deposited roughly 2.6 billion years ago reveals that pulses of oxygen may have swept through large regions of the ocean, researchers report April 26 in Nature Geoscience.
Hidden Antarctic lakes could supercharge sea level rise

3 weeks ago | sciencenews.org | Nikk Ogasa

Beneath the great, white expanse of the Antarctic Ice Sheet, a mysterious realm of streams and lakes lies out of sight. Much about this hidden water world remains poorly understood. But a new study suggests that if scientists continue to overlook it, they might greatly underestimate global sea level rise.
This weird ice may exist on alien planets

1 month ago | snexplores.org | Nikk Ogasa

bond: (in chemistry) A semi-permanent attachment between atoms — or groups of atoms — in a molecule. It’s formed by an attractive force between the participating atoms. Once bonded, the atoms will work as a unit. To separate the component atoms, energy must be supplied to the molecule as heat or some other type of radiation. computer model: A program that runs on a computer that creates a model, or simulation, of a real-world feature, phenomenon or event. crystal: (adj.
The ozone layer shields life on Earth. We’ll soon lose a key way to monitor its health

1 month ago | sciencenews.org | Nikk Ogasa

Humankind will soon lose a great deal of vigilance over the ozone layer, which shields life on Earth from harmful solar radiation. The impending loss of NASA’s Aura and the Canadian Space Agency’s SCISAT satellites threatens scientists’ ability to closely monitor compounds that destroy ozone and alter stratospheric circulation.
Earthquake farts may explain some spooky floating lights

1 month ago | snexplores.org | Nikk Ogasa |Carolyn Wilke

aftershock: One or more smaller earthquakes which often follow a major earthquake. anaerobic: Occurring in the absence of oxygen. Anaerobic reactions take place in oxygen-free locations. bedrock: The thick, solid rock layer that underlies the soil and other broken, rocky materials on Earth’s surface. earthquake: A sudden and sometimes violent shaking of the ground, sometimes causing great destruction, as a result of movements within Earth’s crust or of volcanic action.
What is a dinosaur?

1 month ago | snexplores.org | Aaron Tremper |Nikk Ogasa |Stephen Ornes |Rachel Ehrenberg

Visit your local natural history museum gift shop and you’ll probably find a container of dinosaur toys for sale. Dump out its contents, though, and you’ll likely find some imposters, says Nathan Smith. He should know. He’s director and curator of the Dinosaur Institute in California. It’s part of the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles. Winged pterosaurs are a common fraud. So is the sail-backed carnivore, Dimetrodon. The word “dinosaur” isn’t a catch-all term for just any scaly, prehistoric giant.
This long-buried glacier ice is at least 770,000 years old

2 months ago | snexplores.org | Nikk Ogasa

Arctic: A region that falls within the Arctic Circle. The edge of that circle is defined as the northernmost point at which the sun is visible on the northern winter solstice and the southernmost point at which the midnight sun can be seen on the northern summer solstice. The high Arctic is that most northerly third of this region. It’s a region dominated by snow cover much of the year. atmosphere: The envelope of gases surrounding Earth, another planet or a moon.
A weird ice that may form on alien planets has finally been observed

2 months ago | sciencenews.org | Nikk Ogasa

A strange type of ice thought to dwell deep in the oceans of alien planets has finally been proven to exist. For the first time, researchers have directly observed a sort of hybrid phase of water called plastic ice, which forms at high temperatures and pressures and exhibits traits of both solid ice and liquid water.
Spooky floating lights in South Carolina could be earthquake farts

Feb 11, 2025 | sciencenews.org | Nikk Ogasa

A South Carolina ghost story could have a very earthly explanation. Starting in the 1950s, folks in the Summerville, S.C., area began reporting sightings of strange balls of light floating down a remote road near some former railroad tracks. Local lore has it that the eerie illuminations, known as the Summerville Light, are the glow of a lantern carried by a forlorn ghost.