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

    Teens take on science in the age of smartphones

    With nearly every teen using a smartphone, it’s no surprise teen scientists are studying them. Two teams do science with smartphones, one on procrastination, the other on self-esteem.

  2. Agriculture

    Sheep poop may spread poisonous weed

    Fireweed is a poisonous plant in Australia. Sheep can eat it without hurting themselves. But a teen found those sheep may be spreading more weeds.

  3. Health & Medicine

    Library books could come with a side of germs

    People transfer microbes to most of the things we touch. Does that extend to our library books? A teen did an experiment to find out.

  4. Science & Society

    Research is important because…

    Teens wouldn’t do science unless they felt it was important. Here’s why they think it matters so much.

  5. Space

    Scientists Say: Supernova

    When a star has too much mass, it can explode. The explosion is called a supernova.

  6. Brain

    Scientists Say: Hippocampus

    The hippocampus is an area of the brain that is essential for forming new memories.

  7. Confidence in math predicts girls’ participation in STEM

    Even with similar grades, high school girls rank themselves less able to handle tough math material. That may steer them away from math and science careers.

  8. Chemistry

    Scientists Say: Isotope

    An isotope is a variety of an element that has the same number of protons but a different number of neutrons — or neutrally charged particles.

  9. Brain

    Two brain areas team up to make mental maps

    To find your way around, you need to remember where you are and plan ahead. A new study shows there’s a brain area for each task.

  10. Space

    Citizen scientists wanted to make an eclipse megamovie

    A solar eclipse will cross the United States on August 21, 2017. Video capture by people in the eclipse’s path can help with scientific research.

  11. Planets

    Scientists Say: Eclipse

    How the sun, moon and Earth line up determines whether there’s a solar or lunar eclipse.

  12. Chemistry

    Scientists Say: Atomic number

    How do you know where an element sits in the periodic table? Count its protons to get its atomic number.