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
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Environment
Scientists Say: Fracking
Liquid fuel sources such as natural gas and petroleum form deep underground between layers of rock. To retrieve them, engineers often use a technique called hydraulic fracturing, or fracking.
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Space
Scientists Say: Gravitational lens
A gravitational lens is an effect that occurs when a massive object lies between a viewer and something further away. The massive object’s gravity bends light arriving from the more distant object.
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Health & Medicine
Scientists Say: Hormone
This is a chemical that travels in the blood and acts as a signal. It can tell distant body parts what to do. When a chemical acts in this way, it has a special name.
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Environment
Scientists Say: Microplastic
Bits of plastic smaller than five millimeters are called microplastics. They can end up in the ocean, where corals might mistake them for food.
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Animals
Scientists Say: Nematode
Nematodes are a group of related small worms found all over the world. They can cause disease, but they also can be useful for scientists to study.
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Animals
Scientists Say: Irruption
Sometimes populations of animals can suddenly increase. The word for that is irruption.
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Chemistry
Scientists Say: Fulgurite
When lightning strikes in the right place, it can fuse minerals together in a glassy structure.
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Brain
Scientists Say: Cortical homunculus
If you draw a representation of your body as seen by your brain, it’s called a homunculus. On it, parts sensitive to touch or used for fine movement are large, while others are small.
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Health & Medicine
Scientists Say: Circadian
We often feel the pull of sleep when the sun goes down. Light and our own biology put us into a regular, 24-hour rhythm that has its own word.
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Brain
Scientists Say: Blood-brain barrier
Blood can contain nasty bacteria and other things you want to keep away from your delicate brain. The blood-brain barrier is up to the job.
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Psychology
Scientists Say: Pareidolia
We often see things that aren’t there, such as bunnies in clouds or faces in toast. They aren’t real, but they do have a special name
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Life
Scientists Say: Parthenogenesis
When a baby frog develops from an egg that’s never been fertilized, we call that parthenogenesis.