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. Earth

    Mailing off my microbeads

    I was shocked to find out that my face wash contains plastics that might possibly harm marine creatures. So I’m donating it to science.

  2. Animals

    Keep the lights on for National Moth Week

    Helping scientists is as easy as leaving your porch light on. Photograph the moths you see and upload them to the Internet for science.

  3. Wire critter shows power of surface tension

    Water striders walk on water by using surface tension. Now you can do the same with a wire critter weight-lifting contest.

  4. Science & Society

    Dissect a frog and keep your hands clean

    Dissecting frogs can be a fun and useful way to learn about anatomy. If you don’t have a frog on hand, here are three smartphone apps that allow you have your frog legs and dissect them, too.

  5. Teaching the teachers with arctic exploration

    An expedition company teams up with National Geographic to help teachers get out of the classroom so that they can share polar experiences with their students.

  6. Tech

    A homemade bungee cord could save kids in hot cars

    Babies left in hot cars are in serious danger. A middle-school student invented a simple reminder to help parents keep their children safe.

  7. Five teachable Cosmos moments

    TV’s new Cosmos series has much to cover in only 13 episodes. Here are five segments whose educational moments stood out.

  8. Animals

    Teen shows salty lionfish are getting fresh

    Lauren Arrington kept spotting lionfish in rivers near her Florida home. Her science fair project probed how much fresh water these ocean fish could stand — and led to a published research paper.

  9. Unearth fossil love as a tar pit volunteer

    The tar pits in Los Angeles trapped animals and plants from long ago. Scientists are now recruiting young volunteers to help study their remains.

  10. Become an eco-leader at this summer camp

    Want to stop water waste, save energy or improve the environment? Here’s a summer camp that will help teens develop techniques that they can try out in their local high school.

  11. An owner’s manual for the adolescent brain

    Most books on adolescence talk about the changes you can see. This one focuses on the unseen changes inside a teen’s head.

  12. Animals

    Stalking squirrels for science

    A scientist noticed the squirrels in his family’s town, and began studying them. His results show why squirrels are such good city dwellers, and prove that science is right outside your door.