Tina Hesman Saey

Senior Writer, Molecular Biology, Science News

Science News senior writer Tina Hesman Saey is a geneticist-turned-science writer who covers all things microscopic and a few too big to be viewed under a microscope. She is an honors graduate of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln where she did research on tobacco plants and ethanol-producing bacteria. She spent a year as a Fulbright scholar at the Georg-August University in Göttingen, Germany, studying microbiology and traveling. Her work on how yeast turn on and off one gene earned her a Ph.D. in molecular genetics at Washington University in St. Louis. Tina then rounded out her degree collection with a master’s in science journalism from Boston University. She interned at the Dallas Morning News and Science News before returning to St. Louis to cover biotechnology, genetics and medical science for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. After a seven year stint as a newspaper reporter, she returned to Science News. Her work has been honored by the Endocrine Society, the Genetics Society of America and by journalism organizations.

All Stories by Tina Hesman Saey

  1. Genetics

    Explainer: How CRISPR works

    Scientists are using a tool called CRISPR to edit DNA in all types of cells.

  2. Genetics

    DNA tells tale of how cats conquered the world

    Ancient DNA study suggests that domesticated cats spread across the ancient world in two waves.

  3. Health & Medicine

    Your gut’s germs may decide whether white bread or whole wheat is best — for you

    Surprise! Gut microbes may determine how your body responds to starches in the diet.

  4. Science & Society

    Will we know alien life when we see it?

    The hunt is on for extraterrestrials. But recognizing them may require some wiggle room in what we define as being alive.

  5. Life

    How to make a ‘three-parent’ baby

    Scientists combined an egg, sperm and some donor DNA: The end result: what appears to be healthy babies.

  6. Microbes

    New date for U.S. arrival of the AIDS virus

    A new study shows that HIV started circulating at least a decade earlier than previously realized.

  7. Genetics

    Human DNA carries hints of unknown extinct ancestor

    A new study suggests people today carry genetic traces of now-extinct species unknown to science.

  8. Health & Medicine

    Surprise! Most ‘color vision’ cells see only black or white

    Cone cells in the eye’s retina can see black, white or color. The black and white ones may create sharp outlines and edges that color-sensing cones then fill in like parts of a coloring page.

  9. Climate

    Globe’s non-Africans all descend from a single move out of Africa

    Look back far enough and everybody’s ancestors were African no more than 72,000 years ago. Climate scientists would up that date to perhaps 100,000 years ago.

  10. Animals

    Tasmanian devils begin to resist infectious cancer

    A deadly contagious cancer is spreading among Tasmanian devils. But the animals are evolving resistance, a new study finds.

  11. Science & Society

    Pokémon no! Playing the popular game while driving is risky

    Dangerous moves: Over a recent 10-day period, tens of thousands of people were playing Pokémon Go while driving — and tweeting about it.

  12. Chemistry

    Chemistry Nobel honors pioneers of world’s smallest machines

    Three chemists are being honored with a Nobel Prize for their pioneering work creating itty bitty machines, including a microscopic ‘nanocar.’