Bethany Brookshire

Bethany Brookshire

Bethany Brookshire was a longtime staff writer at Science News Explores and is the author of the book Pests: How Humans Create Animal Villains. She has a B.S. in biology and a B.A. in philosophy from The College of William and Mary, and a Ph.D. in physiology and pharmacology from Wake Forest University School of Medicine. She was a 2019-2020 Knight Science Journalism Fellow at MIT, the winner of the Society for Neuroscience Next Generation Award and the Three Quarks Daily Science Writing Award, among others.

All Stories by Bethany Brookshire

  1. Health & Medicine

    Explainer: The benefits of phlegm, mucus and snot

    There are many types of mucus in the body. They might seem gross, but these gloppy goos are the first line of defense against infection.

  2. Health & Medicine

    Friendly adults help teens stand up against bullies

    In the movies, kid heroes often intervene to stop bullies. What makes that happen in reality? A good family life and trustworthy teachers can help.

  3. Scientists Say: Petrichor

    There is no smell quite like that of fresh soil after a rainstorm. That smell has a name — petrichor — and scientists even know how it’s made.

  4. Ecosystems

    Scientists Say: Niche

    An organism’s niche is the role it fills in the community it lives in.

  5. Health & Medicine

    These researchers swallowed Legos for science

    Parents rush to the hospital every day after their kids swallow toys. To calm their fears, six brave doctors swallowed Legos for science.

  6. Chemistry

    Scientists Say: Zirconium

    Zirconium is a metal that knows the meaning of tough. It’s so heat resistant that it’s used for molds to shape melted metals, and so radiation resistant that it coats nuclear reactors.

  7. Health & Medicine

    Snot Science: Stopping the sneeze

    In my previous study, I compared thick and thin snot. Now, I’ll find out if a tissue makes a difference in how far a sneeze spreads.

  8. Health & Medicine

    Scientists Say: Metabolism

    Metabolism is all the chemical activities that support life in a cell, an organ and a whole organism’s body.

  9. Animals

    Scientists Say: Jellies

    Jellies have roamed the seas for 500 million years. Some have stinging tentacles and bell-shaped bodies and are called jellyfish. Others are very different.

  10. Brain

    Expecting pain? That could really make it hurt worse

    How much someone expects something to hurt affects how their brain processes the pain, and how well they learn from it.

  11. Planets

    Scientists Say: Exomoon

    A moon that orbits a planet in our solar system in a moon. But a moon that orbits a planet outside our solar system? That’s an exomoon.

  12. Animals

    Mosquito repellent could pose risks to baby salamanders

    Two ingredients in bug repellant — DEET and picaridin — can end up in streams. There, they may hurt salamanders but leave mosquitoes alone, a study finds.