Author: Kevin Krajick29

Kevin Krajick is the Columbia Climate School’s senior editor for science news. He grew up in the Catskill Mountains and Hudson Valley of upstate New York, where he worked at his high-school newspaper. He started his professional career as a reporter covering crime, police and prisons across the United States. He has since reported from all 50 U.S. states and 30-some countries, writing about science, medicine, immigration and other subjects. His work has been featured in National Geographic, Newsweek, The New Yorker, Science, Smithsonian and many other publications. He was a 1981 finalist for the National Magazine Award for Public Service for his reporting on organized crime’s links to the toxic waste-disposal industry. He is two-time winner of the American Geophysical Union’s Walter Sullivan Award for Excellence in Science Journalism, and his work has been featured repeatedly in the yearly book “Best American Science and Nature Writing.” His widely praised 2001 book “Barren Lands” is the true account of how two prospectors discovered diamonds in Canada’s remote far north. Krajick holds degrees in comparative literature and journalism from Columbia University. He lives on the Upper West Side of Manhattan with his wife and a tiny white dog.

Glacial Earthquakes May Help Forecast Sea-Level Rise

Glacial earthquakes are produced as massive ice chunks fall off the fronts of advancing glaciers into the ocean. A new study of the quakes’ mechanics may give scientists a way to measure ice loss remotely and refine predictions of sea-level rise.
Tree Rings Confirm Unprecedented Warming in Central Asia

A new study of tree rings from Mongolia dating back more than 1,000 years confirms that recent warming in central Asia has no parallel in any known record.
World’s Oldest Unused Stone Tools Found (So They Say)

Last week, it was announced that scientists had found the world’s oldest stone tools, in Kenya, dated at 3.3 million years. The precise dating of the tools was made possible by Chris Lepre and Dennis Kent of Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, who used periodic reversals in earth’s magnetic field to nail the timing. Now, in a…
Global Warming’s ‘Missing’ Heat: It May Be in the Indian Ocean

Since the late 1990s, global warming has stabilized, even as greenhouse gases have risen. That defies simple models that say the temperature should keep going up. A team of oceanographers now says they know where the missing heat has gone.
Scientists Discover World’s Oldest Stone Tools

Finds Challenge Ideas about Who Were the First Toolmakers
Study Reveals Microbes’ Hidden Role in Fertilizing Oceans

Surprisingly little has been known about how phosphorous, an essential nutrient, cycles through the oceans. A new study has broken through some of this mystery, by showing the hidden role that the oceans’ tiniest creatures play.
Bad Ozone Days in Western U.S. Linked to Pacific Weather

A new study shows that ozone pollution in the western United States can be increased by La Niña, a natural weather cycle at the surface of the Pacific Ocean. The finding is the first to show that the La Nina-El Nino cycles directly affects pollution.
Lamont-Doherty to Manage U.S. Ocean Drilling Program

Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory has signed a $35 million, five-year cooperative agreement with the U.S. National Science Foundation to manage scientific support services for U.S. scientists studying the world’s ocean floors.
Goddard Institute to Aid Search for Life on Distant Worlds

Despite its name, the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies has in recent years concentrated on planet Earth–mainly, its widely used computer models used by scientists around the world to measure and predict the impact of greenhouse gases on climate. This week NASA announced that the Earth Institute-affiliated center will also play a leading role…

Glacial Earthquakes May Help Forecast Sea-Level Rise

Glacial earthquakes are produced as massive ice chunks fall off the fronts of advancing glaciers into the ocean. A new study of the quakes’ mechanics may give scientists a way to measure ice loss remotely and refine predictions of sea-level rise.
Tree Rings Confirm Unprecedented Warming in Central Asia

A new study of tree rings from Mongolia dating back more than 1,000 years confirms that recent warming in central Asia has no parallel in any known record.
World’s Oldest Unused Stone Tools Found (So They Say)

Last week, it was announced that scientists had found the world’s oldest stone tools, in Kenya, dated at 3.3 million years. The precise dating of the tools was made possible by Chris Lepre and Dennis Kent of Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, who used periodic reversals in earth’s magnetic field to nail the timing. Now, in a…
Global Warming’s ‘Missing’ Heat: It May Be in the Indian Ocean

Since the late 1990s, global warming has stabilized, even as greenhouse gases have risen. That defies simple models that say the temperature should keep going up. A team of oceanographers now says they know where the missing heat has gone.
Scientists Discover World’s Oldest Stone Tools

Finds Challenge Ideas about Who Were the First Toolmakers
Study Reveals Microbes’ Hidden Role in Fertilizing Oceans

Surprisingly little has been known about how phosphorous, an essential nutrient, cycles through the oceans. A new study has broken through some of this mystery, by showing the hidden role that the oceans’ tiniest creatures play.
Bad Ozone Days in Western U.S. Linked to Pacific Weather

A new study shows that ozone pollution in the western United States can be increased by La Niña, a natural weather cycle at the surface of the Pacific Ocean. The finding is the first to show that the La Nina-El Nino cycles directly affects pollution.
Lamont-Doherty to Manage U.S. Ocean Drilling Program

Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory has signed a $35 million, five-year cooperative agreement with the U.S. National Science Foundation to manage scientific support services for U.S. scientists studying the world’s ocean floors.
Goddard Institute to Aid Search for Life on Distant Worlds

Despite its name, the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies has in recent years concentrated on planet Earth–mainly, its widely used computer models used by scientists around the world to measure and predict the impact of greenhouse gases on climate. This week NASA announced that the Earth Institute-affiliated center will also play a leading role…