Carolyn Wilke

Contributing Editor, Science News Explores

Carolyn Wilke earned her Ph.D. in environmental engineering at Northwestern University, where her research drew on the fields of environmental chemistry, materials science and toxicology. She got her start in science writing by blogging for HELIX, Northwestern’s science magazine and wrote as a AAAS Mass Media Fellow at The Sacramento Bee. Now a freelance science writer. Carolyn worked as a staff writer at Science News Explores and interned at Science News and The Scientist. When not delving into a new scientific discovery, you might find Carolyn behind her sewing machine or trying to amuse her cat. 

All Stories by Carolyn Wilke

  1. Life

    Scientists Say: Fermentation

    Fermentation breaks down carbohydrates, such as sugars, producing energy and making gases, acids or alcohol. This process can help make foods and fuels.

  2. Genetics

    What would it take to make a unicorn?

    Onward’s dumpster-diving unicorns seem like an impossibility. But scientists have some ideas about how unicorns could become real.

  3. Fossils

    Scientists Say: Fossil

    Under the right conditions, living things or traces they’ve left behind can be preserved in rock for a long time — millions or billions of years.

  4. Animals

    Analyze This: Shimmering colors may help beetles hide

    Delve into data showing how brilliant colors that shift as a viewer — or predator — moves may help iridescent insects blend in.

  5. Brain

    Easily distracted? Training your brain’s activity could help

    People can train their brainwaves to direct their attention, scientists have now shown. The technique may someday be able to help people focus.

  6. Space

    Scientists Say: Gas giant

    These gargantuan planets, such as Jupiter and Saturn, are mostly made up of hydrogen and helium gas.

  7. Brain

    Curiosity drives this neuroscientist and artist

    Christine Liu studies the brain on nicotine — and used Instagram to bring together women doing incredible science.

  8. Earth

    Scientists Say: Glacier

    Glaciers are massive ‘rivers of ice’ that move slowly over land. But climate change is shrinking them.

  9. Health & Medicine

    Scientists Say: Outbreak, Epidemic and Pandemic

    These terms can describe what is happening as a disease spreads across communities, countries and the world.

  10. Physics

    Scientists Say: Decibel

    A decibel is a unit of measurement that describes a sound’s volume. It’s used for sounds that are in the range of human hearing.

  11. Ecosystems

    Scientists Say: Estuary

    This is where a freshwater river meets a salty sea. This environment has brackish water, a mix of saltwater and freshwater.

  12. Physics

    Scientists Say: Quark

    These subatomic particles are the building blocks of bigger particles, including the protons and neutrons found in an atom’s nucleus.