Helen Thompson

Helen Thompson

Multimedia Editor

Helen Thompson is the multimedia editor at Science News. She makes videos, creates data visuals, helps manage the website, wrangles cats and occasionally writes about things like dandelion flight and whale evolution. She has undergraduate degrees in biology and English from Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas, a master’s degree in science writing from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, and strong opinions about tacos. Before Science News, she wrote for Smithsonian, NPR.org, National Geographic, Nature and others.

All Stories by Helen Thompson

  1. Archaeology

    Ancient Assyrians buried their dead with turtles

    Why did ancient Assyrians bury their dead with turtles? The reptiles may have served as symbolic protectors of the dead.

  2. Animals

    Cyborg beetles walk the walk

    New beetle biobots come with speed and gait control.

  3. Animals

    These cyborg beetles walk the walk

    New beetle biobots come with speed and gait control.

  4. Microbes

    Diverse yeasts make their home on coffee and cacao beans

    Yeasts in coffee and cacao are shaped by geography and human migration, genetic analysis finds.

  5. Genetics

    Zika may have flown to Brazil in 2013

    The brand of Zika currently floating around the Americas traces its origins to Asia and may have arrived in Brazil by air as early as 2013.

  6. Life

    How Paralympic sprinters lose speed on curves

    Amputee runners may lose more speed on curves when the leg on the inside of the curve is the one bearing a prosthetic, a biomechanics study finds.

  7. Animals

    Great tits sing with syntax

    Humans are no longer the only species to use compositional syntax. Great tits do, too.

  8. Animals

    These beetles use surface tension to water-ski

    Waterlily beetles are in for a fast and bumpy ride as they fly across ponds, researchers find.

  9. Paleontology

    Fossil reveals an ancient arthropod’s nervous system

    A roughly 520-million-year-old fossil preserved an ancient arthropod’s ventral nerve cord and peripheral nerves.

  10. Environment

    Low levels of radiation from Fukushima persist in seafood

    Aquatic species in Japan contain low levels of radioactive cesium, but some freshwater species risk high contamination.

  11. Environment

    California gas leak spewed massive amounts of methane

    New estimates suggest that a 2015 natural gas well blowout injected tons of greenhouse gases into the Los Angeles atmosphere.

  12. Animals

    The dodo was no dummy

    Dodos may have been quite smart, 3-D skull scans suggest.