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. Computing

    Fingerprints could help keep kids from dangerous websites

    A teen develops a program that estimates age based on someone’s fingers

  2. Health & Medicine

    Scientists Say: Ultrasound

    Ultrasound is a word used to describe any sounds higher than a person can hear. It’s also a technique used to see inside the body.

  3. Protecting deer with high-pitched noises

    After her uncle crashed his truck into a deer, this teen decided to find out if there was a sound that would drive the animals away from roads.

  4. Health & Medicine

    How many ants is the best number of ants? More than one, fewer than 100

    How many ants does it take to make the best decision? This teen found that four to six is just right.

  5. Environment

    Scientists Say: Runoff

    Water that flows through soil and into rivers, lakes and oceans becomes runoff. That runoff can carry part of the land — including its pollution — to the sea.

  6. Psychology

    Teen fights fake news, one newsfeed at a time

    How do we get rid of misleading news? One teen found that warning signs might help, but the most effective option, to him, looks too much like censorship.

  7. Health & Medicine

    Drug-detection system could help partygoers protect themselves

    Fed up with people getting unwittingly drugged at parties, a teen designed a special bracelet. It can alert drinkers to the presence of certain hidden drugs.

  8. Health & Medicine

    Science-fair finding allows girl to sample a croissant

    Some supplements claim they can help people with celiac disease, who cannot digest gluten. But do the pills work? One teen used science to find out.

  9. Health & Medicine

    Which bacteria hang out in belly buttons? Here’s a who’s who

    Bacteria are everywhere — even in our belly buttons. One teen at Intel ISEF decided to find out what types people were harboring in their navels.

  10. Life

    Scientists Say: Vacuole

    Cells can’t always get rid of trash or digest food immediately. This week’s word describes where they store their stuff.

  11. Plants

    Scientists Say: Invasive species

    These are foreign species that are causing problems for native organisms and ecosystems.

  12. Tech

    Star Wars‘ cutest droids would get stuck on the beach

    On screen, R2D2 and BB-8 travel over every type of terrain. But in real life, any sandy path would stop these droids short.