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. A teen and a trolley reveal society’s dark side

    If a trolley continues on its track, five people will die. But you can flip a switch so that it only kills one. A student showed that how we decide what to do in this situation can reveal our hidden biases.

  2. That’s when I knew I loved science

    Finalists at the Intel Science Talent Search competition tell Eureka! Lab when they realized they loved science, technology, engineering and math.

  3. Science foils fencing history

    Fencing is a sport where knowledge has been handed down for many generations. A high school student decided to add some science into the mix.

  4. Health & Medicine

    Scientists Say: Circadian

    We often feel the pull of sleep when the sun goes down. Light and our own biology put us into a regular, 24-hour rhythm that has its own word.

  5. Tech

    Museum app fleshes out old bones

    Museum app breathes life into skeletons. But it will need more funding to make it shine.

  6. Brain

    Scientists Say: Blood-brain barrier

    Blood can contain nasty bacteria and other things you want to keep away from your delicate brain. The blood-brain barrier is up to the job.

  7. Popping my own corny experiment

    Popcorn pops at 180 °C, according to a study, but that was corn popped in an oven. What happens if you try to confirm this on a stove top?

  8. Psychology

    Scientists Say: Pareidolia

    We often see things that aren’t there, such as bunnies in clouds or faces in toast. They aren’t real, but they do have a special name

  9. Physics

    How popcorn got its pop

    Popcorn is a popular treat. Now, scientists have learned exactly what happens as it pops. They also have come up with an experiment they hope you will try.

  10. Life

    Scientists Say: Parthenogenesis

    When a baby frog develops from an egg that’s never been fertilized, we call that parthenogenesis.

  11. These drones are for the birds

    Flying robots represent a great opportunity to observe wildlife. But if scientists want animals to behave naturally, they need to know close we can get before they disturb wild creatures. For that, researchers will need an experiment.

  12. Materials Science

    Scientists Say: Colloid

    When water hovers in the air as fog and when bits of fat disperse in water as milk, they form a type of substance called a colloid.