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. 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.

  2. Chemistry

    Making caffeine content crystal clear

    Many popular drinks contain caffeine — a stimulant that in high amounts can keep you up at night. One teen is now measuring just how much is in the beverages we drink.

  3. Earth

    Scientists Say: Jet Stream

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

  4. Chemistry

    Got milk? Do you know what’s in it?

    One teen was dismayed to learn milk might host harmful pollutants. This prompted him to use his science fair project as a way to find out just what was in his favorite drink.

  5. Cookie Science: A bit about butter

    I teamed up with the ACS Reactions team to make a video about cookie science. Here are the details of our experiment.

  6. Hitting headgear hard to head off concussions

    When one soccer player saw her friends getting head injuries, she decided to do something about it. She used her science fair project to test protective headgear.

  7. 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.

  8. Teen invents a better tent to beat fire’s heat

    Firefighters can die fighting wildfires. A teen decided to make a better shelter to keep those heroes safe from approaching flames.

  9. Cooking up a Broadcom win

    Students who improved microwave ovens and built calculating apps took home big awards at the 2015 Broadcom MASTERS.

  10. Student devises test to catch cheaters

    Determined to reveal academic dishonesty at her school, one teen used classmates to probe when they cheat.

  11. My favorite field of science is…

    What is your favorite subject in science, technology, engineering and math? These students share why they love physics, technology, biology and more.

  12. Chemistry

    A teen turns an autumn chore into a science project

    Many scientists are trying to turn plants into a renewable fuel. One teen decided to help, by extracting sugars from the dead leaves on his lawn.