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. Health & Medicine

    The five-second rule: Growing germs for science

    Is it true that food dropped on the floor and picked up after five seconds is clean? To find out, we’re building an incubator and allowing any hitchhiking germs to grow.

  2. Health & Medicine

    The five-second rule: Myth busted?

    We’ve done an experiment to test the five-second rule. Now it’s time to analyze the data. Be forewarned: They’re not appetizing.

  3. Health & Medicine

    The five-second rule: Microbes can’t count

    A good scientific study compares results to what other scientists have done. These scientists have all debunked the five-second rule.

  4. Chemistry

    Scientists Say: Capsaicin

    This chemical is produced by pepper plants and gives them their hot flavor.

  5. Chemistry

    Scientists Say: Graphene

    This is a single layer of carbon atoms, linked to each other in a flat sheet. It’s super strong, super flexible and conducts current, too.

  6. Science classroom excitement is infectious

    This is the right kind of peer pressure. Students who recalled excitement in their science classrooms were more likely to try a science career, a new study shows.

  7. Animals

    Scientists Say: Dire wolf

    Dire wolves are an extinct species of wolf that roamed North America from about 300,000 to 12,000 years ago.

  8. Brain

    Brain’s immune system can play role in weight gain

    Weight isn’t just calories in, calories out. When mice eat a fatty diet, immune cells in their brains become inflamed. That makes the animals gain more weight.

  9. Teen interviews science role models to inspire others

    Frustrated with a lack of female role models in science and math, a high school student created a YouTube channel to inform her peers about STEM careers.

  10. Animals

    These sharks get help swallowing from their shoulders

    Some sharks suck in food by snapping open their jaws. But to gulp it all the way down, they’ve got to give their shoulders a workout.

  11. Space

    Scientists Say: Transit

    When an object in space passes in front of a star and looks big enough to block out all the light, it’s an eclipse. When it’s smaller, it’s called a transit.

  12. Life

    Scientists Say: Histology

    When scientists study the parts of an animal or plant, they are studying anatomy. When they need a microscope to see the details of that anatomy, they are studying histology.