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. Animals

    Scientists Say: Egg and sperm

    An egg or a sperm cell contains half of the normal genes an organism needs. They fuse together to form a new individual.

  2. Climate

    Scientists Say: Weather

    The state of the atmosphere in a specific place and time is weather. Over a long time, the weather conditions in an area will reveal its climate.

  3. Chemistry

    Let’s learn about acids and bases

    Acids give away particles with positive charge. Bases accept positively charged particles. They are both critical for chemical reactions.

  4. Planets

    Scientists Say: Planet

    Planets have to orbit a star, be big enough to form a sphere and keep other objects out of their path around their star.

  5. Math

    Scientists Say: Outlier

    Data points often fall within a normal range. When one data point sticks out a lot, it might be an outlier.

  6. Animals

    How do you build a centaur?

    A centaur has the torso of a human and the body of a horse. It may sound cool, but it wouldn’t work very well.

  7. Climate

    Let’s learn about snow

    Snow is more than just frozen water vapor. Scientists are studying everything from its shape to other planets where snowflakes fall.

  8. Animals

    Scientists Say: Organelle

    An organelle is a part of a cell with a particular function. Like organs. But for cells.

  9. Physics

    Scientists Say: Piezoelectric

    Piezoelectric materials produce an electric voltage when they are bent or squished. This can let us harvest electricity from movement.

  10. Health & Medicine

    Five questions about COVID-19 vaccine trials in teens, answered

    Scientists are now testing COVID-19 vaccines in teens. Why do teens need a separate trial? And what would happen? We’ve got answers.

  11. Animals

    Let’s learn about taste

    Taste tells us what’s good to eat, but scientists are still learning about how it works.

  12. Health & Medicine

    Scientists Say: Body Mass Index

    This is someone’s weight in kilograms divided by the square of their height in meters. But it’s not a measure of someone’s health.