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: Hertz

    Frequency is how often something repeats over a period of time. Frequency is often measured in hertz, the number of times a cycle repeats each second.

  2. Physics

    Scientists Say: Big Bang

    The Big Bang is the current theory about how our universe came to be. It began with a vast explosion of matter — a very Big Bang.

  3. Life

    Scientists Say: Mitosis

    Mitosis is a type of cell division where one cell divides into two identical copies, called daughter cells.

  4. Animals

    Scientists Say: Hagfish

    Hagfish are eel-shaped fish with many traits that make them similar to long-vanished fossils. When threatened, they can pump out piles of slime.

  5. Health & Medicine

    Scientists Say: Obesogens

    The chemicals can change how the body stores fat or how often someone feels hungry — increasing the risk for obesity.

  6. Health & Medicine

    Fighting spider-fear with a little Spider-Man

    Many people are afraid of spiders or ants. Watching a movie clip with the critters in it might help make people more comfortable with them, a new study shows.

  7. Climate

    Scientists Say: Eyewall

    The calm center of a hurricane or other tropical cyclone is called the eye. But the worst winds and rain are around it, in the eyewall.

  8. Chemistry

    Scientists Say: Ferrofluid

    Ferrofluids are liquids with tiny magnetic particles in them. These liquids respond to magnets.

  9. Microbes

    Teens swipe a door handle and find an antibiotic

    Three teens swabbed a smartphone, a door handle and a hand dryer. The new bacterium they turned up can kill other types of germs.

  10. Scientists Say: Naloxone

    This drug can save people who have overdosed on opioids, such as fentanyl and oxycodone.

  11. Physics

    Scientists Say: Light pollution

    Light pollution is when artificial light shines into places that are normally dark. It can disrupt the lives of plants, animals and people.

  12. Health & Medicine

    Scientists Say: Myopia

    Myopia is nearsightedness, where people have trouble seeing far away objects. This happens if someone’s eyes are slightly oval, instead of perfect spheres.