Bethany Brookshire

Staff Writer, Science News for Students, 2013–2021

Bethany Brookshire was the staff writer at Science News for Students from 2013 to 2021. 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 is also a host on the podcast Science for the People, and a 2019-2020 MIT Knight Science Journalism Fellow.

All Stories by Bethany Brookshire

  1. Life

    Shifted waking hours may pave the way to shifting metabolism

    Shift workers are at higher risk for obesity and metabolic problems. Scientists are working hard to understand why the night shift makes our hormones go awry.

  2. Life

    Women blush when ovulating, and it doesn’t matter a bit

    Women don’t signal their fertility in obvious ways like nonhuman primates. A new study shows that even skin flushes are too subtle to detect.

  3. Science & Society

    No matter the language, disease risk is hard to communicate

    Reassuring messages about MERS might seem designed to stop panic. But in reality, people need to hear the truth, even if it’s uncertain.

  4. Plants

    Poppy yields the final secret to making morphine

    Scientists have successfully transplanted most of the morphine synthesis pathway from poppies to yeast. Now the final step is ready to be put in place.

  5. Psychology

    The guilty pleasure of funny cat videos

    Many people love posting and looking at cute kitty content online. A new survey shows that this could be because it helps us manage our emotions.

  6. Science & Society

    Home-brewed heroin: Hold the hype

    Now is the time to think about policy for synthetically produced morphine, but the process, if it bears out, is years away from working.

  7. Science & Society

    Tech in the classroom foreseen 50 years ago

    Fifty years ago, scientists were looking forward to technology in the classroom.

  8. Neuroscience

    Diet and nutrition is more complex than a simple sugar

    A new study shows that fructose may leave you wanting more when compared to the same dose of glucose. But in studies of single nutrients, it’s important to be cautious.

  9. Neuroscience

    A vivid emotional experience requires the right genetics

    A single gene deletion gives some people an extra vivid jolt to their emotional experience, a new study shows.

  10. Neuroscience

    For the blind, hearing the way forward can be a tradeoff

    Many blind people have enhanced hearing. A new study shows that the ability to hear your way forward might come at the cost of hearing up and down.

  11. Chemistry

    A chemistry card game forges bonds

    A new card game lets players brush up on chemistry by making compounds out of ions. Form some bonds and have fun in the process.

  12. Microbes

    City- and country-dwelling microbes aren’t so different

    A new study reveals the microbial communities in our nation’s dust.