Sarah Zielinski

Sarah Zielinski

Editor, Print at Science News Explores

Sarah Zielinski wanted to be a marine biologist when she was growing up, but after graduating from Cornell University with a B.A. in biology, and a stint at the National Science Foundation, she realized that she didn’t want to spend her life studying just one area of science — she wanted to learn about it all and share that knowledge with the public. In 2004, she received an M.A. in journalism from New York University’s Science, Health and Environmental Reporting Program and began a career in science journalism. She worked as a science writer and editor at the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, the American Geophysical Union’s newspaper Eos and Smithsonian magazine before becoming a freelancer. During that time, she started her blog, Wild Things, and moved it to Science News magazine, and then became an editor for and frequent contributor to Science News Explores. Her work has also appeared in Slate, Science, Scientific AmericanDiscover and National Geographic News. She is the winner of the DCSWA 2010 Science News Brief Award and editor of the winner of the Gold Award for Children’s Science News in the 2015 AAAS Kavli Science Journalism Awards, “Where will lightning strike?” published in Science News Explores. In 2005, she was a Marine Biological Laboratory Science Journalism Fellow.

All Stories by Sarah Zielinski

  1. Animals

    Cane toads can handle the cool

    The invasive amphibians may be able to spread farther across Australia than previously thought.

  2. Animals

    Fungi threaten sea turtle nests

    The pathogens can kill up to 90 percent of eggs in a single nest.

  3. Animals

    Synchronous birth

    For young banded mongoose moms, there’s only one choice for when to give birth — the same day as older, dominant mothers. In communities of these cat-sized animals, all females give birth together, no matter when they became pregnant.

  4. Animals

    Gray seals snack on harbor porpoises

    Photo evidence confirms seals' fatal attacks on harbor porpoises in the English Channel, suggesting that declines in the seals' usual fare are forcing the animals to seek out other high-energy food.

  5. Animals

    Eight ways that animals survive the winter

    Migrating to a warmer place is just the start when it comes to finding ways to stay toasty as temperatures drop.

  6. Paleontology

    Hunting fossils in England

    On Monmouth Beach, just west of the center of Lyme Regis, amateur and professional collectors have been making discoveries for more than two centuries.

  7. Archaeology

    After 2,000 years, Ptolemy’s war elephants are revealed

    A genetic study sheds light on world’s only known battle between Asian and African elephants.

  8. Physics

    Transfixing tetrahedrons

    Dervishes are Sufi Muslims who represent the revolving heavens with their spinning dance.

  9. Animals

    African vultures follow the dead, not the herd

    Wildebeest may be numerous, but they’re not attractive to carrion-eating birds unless they’re about to die.

  10. Animals

    Truths and lies about dingoes

    A dingo really did take that woman’s baby, but other myths about the animals have been debunked.

  11. Animals

    Finally, evidence that a starfish’s eyes let it see

    The sea star’s vision isn’t great, but it’s good enough to help the animal find its way home.

  12. Archaeology

    Animal mummies were a message direct to the gods

    A new theory about the purpose of animals mummified by ancient Egyptians proposes that the cats, ibises and other dead critters were more than just simple sacrifices.