photo of Ashley Yeager

Ashley Yeager

Associate News Editor

Ashley Yeager is the associate news editor at Science News. Previously, she worked at The Scientist, where she was an associate editor for nearly three years. She has also worked as a freelance editor and writer, and as a writer at the Simons Foundation, Duke University and the W.M. Keck Observatory. She was the web producer for Science News from 2013 to 2015, and was an intern at the magazine in the summer of 2008. She holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and a master’s degree in science writing from MIT. Her book, Bright Galaxies, Dark Matter and Beyond, on the life of astronomer Vera Rubin, will be published by MIT Press in August.

All Stories by Ashley Yeager

  1. Genetics

    Scorpion’s sting evolved from insects’ defensive proteins

    With a single genetic mutation, an insect’s defensive proteins can be transformed into a toxin that gives scorpions their signature sting, a new study shows.

  2. Genetics

    Microbe and human genes influence stomach cancer risk

    When genes of the bacterium and its human host evolve together, the strain is less harmful than that same strain in a person whose ancestors didn't encounter that particular microbe.

  3. Genetics

    Elephant shark genome small and slow to evolve

    The animals have the smallest genome of non-bony fishes and the slowest-evolving genes among vertebrates, a study suggests.

  4. Extinct ocean reptiles now appear in color

    Fossilized turtle, mosasaur and ichthyosaur tissue holds skin pigments that give scientists clues about what the animals looked like and how the coloration may have helped in colder climates.

  5. Social networks stay small despite social networking

    When adding new friends to social circles, people unconsciously bump others out, keeping social circles small and finite.

  6. Health & Medicine

    Nanoparticle injection blocks breast cancer growth in mice

    A nanoparticle-based therapy delivered directly to the mammary ducts could potentially stop pre-cancerous cells from becoming full-blown breast cancer, scientists say.

  7. Astronomy

    Signs of cloudy skies seen in two exoplanet atmospheres

    Exoplanets GJ 436b and GJ 1214b have signatures of clouds in their atmospheres, but the skies are like nothing seen in the solar system.

  8. Astronomy

    Top exoplanet finds of 2013

    Here are some of the year’s most notable finds.

  9. Astronomy

    Space station pump fixed after two spacewalks

    The repair allowed astronauts to restore power to the labs and experiments running on the space station.

  10. Astronomy

    Exoplanet dangerously close to demise

    Kepler-91b could be on the brink of death — at least on astronomical time scales.

  11. Astronomy

    Gaia spacecraft launches to map Milky Way

    The ESA spacecraft blasted off from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, at 4:12 am EST.

  12. Neuroscience

    Parkinson’s patients drive better with brain stimulation

    Patients make fewer errors with a little help from implanted electrodes, at least on a computer.