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. Physics

    Scientists Say: Yottawatt

    On Earth, scientists measure energy use in watts. When you have lot of those watts — one million billion billion — you have a yottawatt.

  2. Sewing circuits: A crafty way to get kids interested in STEM

    Many classrooms teach electric circuits with batteries and wires. But with e-textiles, students can help design and light up their own art projects.

  3. Physics

    Scientists Say: Wavelength

    When something travels as a wave — such as light — scientists can measure it by its wavelength, the distances between the peaks.

  4. Physics

    Scientists Say: Watt

    Say Watt? This is a unit used to measure the flow of energy being used.

  5. Math

    Scientists Say: Y-axis

    The bars on a graph tell you nothing unless you know what they mean. The lines on the sides can let you know.

  6. How you handle your smartphone could become a secure ID

    The way you move is specific to you, and only you. A teen shows the way someone picks up a phone could be used as a ‘secure’ ID.

  7. A teen uses math to pick out a voice in the crowd

    One teen set out to improve the hearing aid his grandfather hated. His new mathematical model amplifies only what people most want to hear.

  8. This teen designed a filter to save a stream

    Shocked to find out how much phosphorus was in local streams, a teen invented a filter to remove it.

  9. Life

    Scientists Say: Yeast

    For some people, yeast bring to mind slimy infections. But these little fungal beasts are used to make bread rise, too.

  10. Science & Society

    The 2016 Intel Scientist Talent Search on Twitter and beyond

    On March 15, the Intel Science Talent Search celebrated its 75th anniversary. See this year’s competition through social media.

  11. Tiny particles help plastic break down in the sun

    Our world has a plastics problem. One teen has designed a new recipe for plastic that will speed its breakdown in the sun.

  12. Teen scientists win big for health and environmental-cleanup research

    The Intel Science Talent Search honors 40 students each year. The 2016 top award winners studied health technologies and how to clean local streams.