Sid Perkins

Freelance Writer

Sid is a freelance science journalist. He lives in Crossville, Tenn., with his wife, two dogs and three cats. He specializes in earth sciences and paleontology but often tackles topics such as astronomy, planetary science, materials science and engineering. 

 

In 2009, Sid won the Award for Distinguished Science Journalism in the Atmospheric and Related Sciences from the American Meteorological Society. And in 2002, he shared the American Astronomical Society’s Solar Physics Division’s Award for Popular Writing on Solar Physics. Sid’s writing also appears in Science, Nature, Scientific American, the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and Science News.

All Stories by Sid Perkins

  1. Health & Medicine

    When a part makes you whole

    New technologies allow medical experts to create remarkably detailed artificial faces. They can help restore the appearance — and the confidence and self-esteem — of patients who have suffered a disfiguring injury or disease.

  2. Health & Medicine

    Teens exhibit a zeal to heal

    Broadcom MASTERS is the premier middle school science and engineering competition. Several 2014 finalists showed a flair for biomedicine. These young researchers tackled everything from diagnosing cancer early to alerting drowsy drivers before they fall asleep at the wheel.

  3. Materials Science

    ‘Smart’ windows could save energy

    Tiny chemical droplets in a liquid sandwiched between panes of glass turn cloudy when they warm up. This will block some sunlight and potentially save on air conditioning bills.

  4. Earth

    Tides may regularly swamp many U.S. cities

    As sea levels rise, many cities will begin to experience frequent and extensive flooding at high tides. In some areas — even Washington, D.C. — such flooding could become a weekly headache.

  5. Finalists named for major teen competition in Washington

    Forty teen researchers have been selected to compete in the Intel Science Talent Search. The event — a program of Society for Science & the Public — will take place in Washington, D.C., March 5 to11.

  6. Fossils

    Dinos: Some were ‘marathoners’

    The arrangement of major muscles in a duck-billed dinosaur’s legs would have helped them outrun predators such as T. rex, a new analysis suggests.

  7. Fossils

    Tar pit clues provide ice age news

    New analyses of insects and mammals trapped in the La Brea Tar Pits point to climate surprises during the last ice age.

  8. Tech

    Wind power is looking up — to the clouds

    Placing wind turbines high in the sky could let them harvest power from the faster, more reliable winds found at altitude.

  9. Fossils

    Spiked tail to the rescue!

    A stegosaur’s bony ‘armor’ didn’t just fend off a predator’s teeth. The tail spikes could gore attackers, ultimately killing them, fossils now show.

  10. Teen stitches up a Broadcom win

    Holly Jackson, 14, of San Jose, Calif., grabs top honors — and a $25,000 award — in the finals of the Broadcom MASTERS competition.

  11. Tech

    A cane that can ‘see’

    Pre-teen’s invention clips onto a blind person’s cane and detects objects in a person’s path, helping them to avoid trip hazards.

  12. Animals

    Teen studies living flashlights of the deep

    A teen studies a cryptic fish to better understand when and why it flashes its bacterial glow.