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. Life

    Targeting single set of nerve cells may block mosquitoes

    The insects use the same neurons to detect carbon dioxide from our breath and odors from our skin so blocking those cells could lead to more simplified repellent systems.

  2. Neuroscience

    Excess activity shrinks blood vessels in baby mouse brains

    Newborn mouse pups experience permanent brain changes when repeatedly overstimulated.

  3. Health & Medicine

    Forecasting system predicts peaks in flu outbreaks

    A real-time forecasting system has accurately predicted the peak flu cases up to nine weeks before the outbreak.

  4. Planetary Science

    China’s first moon-landing mission blasts off

    If successful, the Chang’e 3 lunar lander and Yutu rover will be the first spacecraft to land on the moon in 37 years.

  5. Planetary Science

    Turbulent ocean could explain Europa’s chaotic ice

    New computer simulations show turbulent global ocean currents that distribute heat unevenly and could explain the formation of the chaotic ice patterns at the moon’s lower latitudes.

  6. Psychology

    Gut reaction could foretell marriage satisfaction

    Unconscious gut reactions may predict happy, and not-so-happy, marriages, a new study suggests.

  7. Astronomy

    Dust cloud, tail could explain exoplanet’s odd light pattern

    KIC 12557548 b may be ejecting dust from its surface, creating a cometlike tail behind it and an opaque envelope of material around it.

  8. Health & Medicine

    Chilling body doesn’t stop bacterial infection

    Lowering the body temperature of individuals with severe bacterial meningitis may not help to improve patients’ health and could do more harm than good.

  9. Health & Medicine

    Starting exercise late in life still helps with aging

    Becoming and staying active as an older individual can lead to a more years without long-term health conditions.

  10. Genetics

    DNA changes may show how whales adapted to water

    Comparing the genetic material of whales has revealed DNA changes that may have helped the animals adapt to aquatic environments.

  11. Paleontology

    New dinosaur species joins ranks of giant carnivores

    The newly named Siats meekerorum probably roamed what is now Utah about 98 million years ago terrorizing the ancestors of T. rex.

  12. Humans

    Babies may have basic body perception at birth

    Newborns may enter the world with the basic systems to distinguish their bodies from those of other people.