
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
- 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.
- 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.
- Space
Scientists Say: Gas giant
These gargantuan planets, such as Jupiter and Saturn, are mostly made up of hydrogen and helium gas.
- Brain
Curiosity drives this neuroscientist and artist
Christine Liu studies the brain on nicotine — and used Instagram to bring together women doing incredible science.
- Earth
Scientists Say: Glacier
Glaciers are massive ‘rivers of ice’ that move slowly over land. But climate change is shrinking them.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Microbes
Globetrotting microbes in airplane sewage may spread antibiotic resistance
Along with harder-to-kill microbes, airplane sewage contains a diverse set of the genes that let bacteria evade antibiotics.
-
- Earth
Scientists Say: Firewhirl and Firenado
Firewhirls are smallish vortices of ash and flame; firenadoes are true twisters set off by the conditions that come with a wildfire.