Elizabeth Quill

Elizabeth Quill

Executive Editor

Elizabeth Quill is the executive editor for Science News. She has overseen efforts including the SN 10: Scientists to Watch and the Year in Review, and is the editorial coordinator for the Science News in High Schools program, which puts Science News and related resources into the hands of teachers and students at more than 4,000 high schools across the United States and worldwide. She has edited special collections on topics ranging from consciousness to general relativity, and recently took a deep dive into the stories behind the periodic table of the elements. Originally from the Finger Lakes region of New York, Elizabeth studied journalism at Ithaca College and received her master’s degree in science writing from MIT. This is her second tour at Science News. She started her career here more than a decade ago and returned in 2015 after serving as the senior editor for science at Smithsonian magazine.

All Stories by Elizabeth Quill

  1. Tubularia indivisa
    Science & Society

    Sea life stars in museum’s glass menagerie

    See Leopold and Rudolf Blaschkas’ delicate glass jellyfish, anemones, sea worms and other marine invertebrates at the Corning Museum of Glass.

  2. Brontosaurus at Yale’s Peabody Museum of Natural History
    Science & Society

    ‘House of Lost Worlds’ opens vaults of renowned natural history museum

    'House of Lost Worlds' pays homage to Yale’s Peabody Museum of Natural History and to the colorful scientists who made the museum great.

  3. Tech

    When Networks Network

    Once studied solo, systems display surprising behavior when they interact.

  4. Physics

    Highlights from the American Physical Society April Meeting, Atlanta

    String theory’s take on the Higgs, newborn pulsars may have iron by-products, and coupled neutrons in beryllium nuclei revealed.

  5. Astronomy

    New data support Einstein on accelerating universe

    New measurements of distant galaxies support Einstein’s cosmological constant as the explanation for the universe’s accelerating expansion.

  6. Anthropology

    Measure Your Giant Carefully And His Size Will Shrink

  7. Hanging in the balance

    The fate of the universe was supposed to be sealed by the turn of the millennium. In one end-time scenario, the entire universe — from galaxies down to atoms — would rip apart at its seams. Nicolle Rager Fuller COSMIC ARMAGEDDON | The discovery of dark energy made the fate of the universe much more […]

  8. Don’t forget beauty

    An ornithologist argues that arbitrary preferences may have a place in the bird world.

  9. Cosmic dioramas

    Move over Harry Potter, and take your invisibility cloak with you. Alice’s looking glass may be the latest bit of literary magic worthy of physics laboratories. If many universes exist, metamaterials may offer a way to study the properties of such spaces in the laboratory. Nicolle Rager Fuller From afar, an ant on a hose […]

  10. Book Review: Here’s Looking at Euclid: A Surprising Excursion through the Astonishing World of Math by Alex Bellos

    Numberland is a topsy-turvy place. In his new book, Bellos follows math’s counterintuitive twists and turns with the surprise and delight of someone rediscovering a long-lost landscape. HERE’S LOOKING AT EUCLID BY ALEX BELLOS After receiving a degree in mathematics and philosophy from Oxford University, Bellos left the world of numbers for the world of […]

  11. Seeking a definition

    Pitch is determined by a sound’s frequency. Notes that sit in different positions on a musical scale, called tones, have different pitches. Modern Western music, for example, combines 12 tones, with the A at the middle of a piano keyboard having a frequency of 440 hertz. Other cultures work with fewer tones. The first few […]

  12. Not just a pleasant sound

    When people use music to share stories, comfort peers or worship gods, it takes on new meaning. Music’s roles vary depending on time and place.  Bonding: Battle hymns, national anthems and alma maters unite people for a common cause and make them feel that they are a part of something larger. Marching bands (shown), for […]