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
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Chemistry
Scientists Say: Peptide
Peptides are short chains made of smaller molecules called amino acids. These chains can form proteins, and they can also do work on their own.
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New movies give an inside look at the ‘Olympics’ of science fairs
These two documentaries take you behind the poster boards of the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair.
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Animals
Scientists Say: Larva
Many insects, amphibians and fish have a life stage after they hatch that looks very different from the animal’s adult form. This life stage has its own name.
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Animals
Cool Jobs: Sucking up science with mosquitoes
Mosquitoes are tiny, but the illnesses they spread can be deadly. To fight these germ spreaders, scientists need to get to know mosquitoes better — much better.
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Climate
Scientists Say: Climate
Climate is the atmospheric conditions that are typical to a general area over a long period of time.
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Brain
Body heat due to exercise may reduce hunger
Why aren’t animals hungry after a workout? Brain cells that control appetite may sense the exercise heat — and keep you out of the kitchen, a new study finds.
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Earth
Scientists Say: Stalactite and stalagmite
Stalactites are mineral deposits forms on the ceilings of caves. Stalagmites are also mineral deposits, but they form on the floor of the cave.
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Animals
Scientists Say: Nematocyst
Nematocysts are special cells in some ocean critters, such as jellyfish, sea anenomes and corals. They have a barb coated in venom that shoots out at their prey.
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Health & Medicine
Scientists Say: Remission
Remission is a term used in medicine. It describes a disease that isn’t active anymore —whether it is cured or simply dormant.
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Physics
Scientists Say: Infrared
Infrared light belongs to a part of the spectrum that people can’t see. But this kind of light can be used to “see” the heat signatures of objects.
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Brain
Scientists Say: Ventral striatum
The ventral striatum is an area of the brain that plays an important role in mood, learning and addiction. It has a lot of dopamine, a chemical messenger.
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Earth
Scientists Say: Upwelling
This is a process in which a substance rises and spreads out over something else. Upwelling happens in the ocean, inside the Earth and even in a planet’s atmosphere.