Erin Garcia de Jesús

Staff Writer

Erin Garcia de Jesús is a staff writer at Science News. She holds a Ph.D. in microbiology from the University of Washington, where she studied virus/host co-evolution. After deciding science as a whole was too fascinating to spend a career studying one topic, she went on to earn a master’s in science communication from the University of California, Santa Cruz. Her writing has appeared in Nature News, Science, Eos, Smithsonian Voices and more, and she was the winter 2019 science writing intern at Science News.

All Stories by Erin Garcia de Jesús

  1. Health & Medicine

    How a brutal drought may have helped unleash yellow fever in Brazil

    Animals searching for water brought the forest to the city, perhaps sparking Brazil’s first yellow fever outbreak in decades.

  2. Neuroscience

    A photographic memory is wishful thinking

    In fiction, photographic memories crack the case or save the day. But our brains can’t hold on to everything — and that’s a good thing.

  3. Health & Medicine

    Measles cases in the U.S. hit a new 34-year high

    The U.S. hasn't seen measles numbers like this since 1992. An epidemiologist explains what's driving the surge.

  4. Animals

    Summit living isn’t a problem for this tiny mouse

    A boost to heat production and drawing in more oxygen may help Andean leaf-eared mice thrive at altitude.

  5. Animals

    A whopping 14 million species of insects — or more — may roam Earth

    New calculations suggest that the insect species inhabiting our planet may be double or triple previous estimates.

  6. Health & Medicine

    Measles has no treatments. Changing that may not be easy

    Vaccination remains the priority, but some researchers are looking for drugs to fight the virus in people who don't get the shot.

  7. Animals

    Bumblebees can solve problems on their own

    With no training, bumblebees can work out how to use a ball like a ladder to feed on sugar from an out-of-reach flower.

  8. Health & Medicine

    Curbing Congo’s Ebola outbreak is hampered by unknowns about the virus

    Answers to key questions could help public health officials develop Ebola treatments, predict the outbreak’s trajectory and prevent a future one.

  9. Life

    Can DEET attract mosquitoes? A lab study offers clues

    Lab experiments suggest mosquitoes can smell DEET and learn to associate it with food, but it’s unclear whether that happens in the wild.

  10. Health & Medicine

    Some South American rodent-borne viruses may spread as climate warms

    Some rodents in South America carry arenaviruses and hantaviruses. Climate change may bring both to regions where neither is currently a threat.

  11. Psychology

    Yawning is contagious — even in the womb

    Rather than catching a yawn on sight, muscles squeezing the uterus could be the trigger for a fetus to catch a yawn from its mother.

  12. Microbes

    How climate change may increase antibiotic resistance

    Rising heat and drought may spur bacteria to exchange antibiotic resistance genes, with potential risks to human health.