Rachel Ehrenberg

Previously the interdisciplinary sciences and chemistry reporter and author of the Culture Beaker blog, Rachel has written about new explosives, the perils and promise of 3-D printing and how to detect corruption in networks of email correspondence. Rachel was a 2013-2014 Knight Science Journalism fellow at MIT. She has degrees in botany and political science from the University of Vermont and a master’s in evolutionary biology from the University of Michigan. She graduated from the science writing program at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

All Stories by Rachel Ehrenberg

  1. Science & Society

    Pulling ‘Vaxxed’ still doesn’t retract vaccine misconceptions

    The Tribeca Film Festival’s decision to cancel its screening of an antivaccination film has been lauded as a win for science, but irrationality already won.

  2. Math

    Mathematicians find a peculiar pattern in primes

    Consecutive prime numbers don’t behave as randomly as mathematicians assumed.

  3. Science & Society

    Men’s voices dominate political ads, but voters listen to women

    The gender of the narrator in political ads can help sway voters, but an analysis finds that this is one area that campaigns actually aren’t exploiting.

  4. Agriculture

    FDA to test foods for controversial herbicide

    Amid controversy and conflicting studies, the FDA will test food for glyphosate, the most widely used herbicide in the world.

  5. Science & Society

    ‘GMOs’ isn’t a four-letter word, but it is hard to define

    The definition of what constitutes a genetically modified organism is a challenge to those tasked with developing standards for labeling foods that contain GMOs.

  6. Genetics

    GMOs haven’t delivered on their promises — or risks

    Genetically modified foods have been studied extensively and are abundant on supermarket shelves, but they haven’t managed to end world hunger yet.

  7. Science & Society

    How seeing ‘Star Wars’ satisfies your narcissistic tendencies

    Participating in geek culture allows self-identified geeks to satisfy a narcissistic need for expert status, a new study hypothesizes.

  8. Genetics

    Year in review: Cancer genetics grows up

    Researchers looking for mutations linked to cancer have found that not all genetic alterations should be targeted equally.

  9. Science & Society

    Analysis gives a glimpse of the extraordinary language of lying

    A study of fraudulent research articles reveals patterns in language that indicate a paper is worthy of closer scrutiny.

  10. Health & Medicine

    Eating meat officially raises cancer risk

    Eating processed meats like bacon, ham and sausage causes cancer, says the World Health Organization.

  11. Science & Society

    For the real hits of fashion week, look to computer science

    A machine learning algorithm that analyzes trends on the runway and those on the street could help designers and manufacturers better understand what fashion trends take off.

  12. Neuroscience

    Steve Ramirez: Erasing fear memories

    Neuroscientist Steve Ramirez is manipulating memories in mice to one day erase fearful memories of PTSD.