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. Oceans

    Scientists identify plankton from space

    Plankton are often too tiny for our eyes to see. But when huge numbers bloom at once, they now can be ID’d from space, a new study shows.

  2. Chemistry

    Scientists Say: Radioactive

    Some atoms have unstable centers. They periodically give off energy. This activity has a special description.

  3. Chemistry

    Scientists Say: Osmosis

    When two solutions are separated by a membrane where only the liquid can cross, the liquid will move from the side with a low concentration of dissolved materials to the side with a higher concentration. This movement has a special name.

  4. Chemistry

    Scientists Say: Dioxide

    Carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide and zirconium dioxide all have something in common. They are all molecules with two oxygens bound to some other element.

  5. Brain

    Scientists Say: Neurotransmitters

    When brain cells need to communicate, they use chemicals as messengers. These molecules have a special name.

  6. Brain

    Lessons from failure: Why we try, try again

    We all suffer failures. But we don’t always try again. Focusing on what they can be learned might help people keep going, brain imaging data now show.

  7. Chemistry

    Scientists Say: Organic

    These days you might think organic refers just to food. But it has a completely different meaning in chemistry.

  8. Brain

    Males and females respond to head hits differently

    Men and women are playing sports equally — and getting concussions in comparable numbers. But how their brains respond may differ greatly.

  9. Math

    Scientists Say: Quartile

    A quartile might sound like a fourth. But that’s not quite what it is.

  10. Brain

    Can’t sing on-key? Blame the brain

    Tone-deafness doesn’t mean that someone can’t hear music. The brain just misinterprets what it “hears”, a new study suggests.

  11. Earth

    Scientists Say: Jet Stream

    You might hear about the jet stream on a weather report, but what is it? We explain.

  12. Plants

    Scientists Say: Xylem

    How do trees ferry water from the soil to branches hundreds of feet in the air? This week’s word is the answer.