Sujata Gupta

Sujata Gupta

Social Sciences Writer

Sujata Gupta is the social sciences writer for Science News. She was a 2017-18 Knight Science Journalism fellow at MIT. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, Nature, Discover, NPR, Scientific American, and others. Sujata got her start in journalism at a daily newspaper in Central New York, where she covered education and small town politics. She has also worked as a National Park Ranger, completing stints at parks in Hawaii, California and Maine, and taught English in Nagano, Japan.

All Stories by Sujata Gupta

  1. Microbes

    A Greenland explorer will eat only decaying seal for a month

    British chef Mike Keen will ski across Greenland eating only fermented seal. Researchers will study how the Inuit diet shapes gut health.

  2. Science & Society

    AI can take the friction out of life, but some effort can be good

    Technologies, including chatbots, promise to make life easier. But removing the friction, or effort involved in thinking, has costs.

  3. Science & Society

    Snippets of hair may expose chronic stress in war refugees

    Cortisol in hair shows sharper differences in chronic stress among Ukraine war refugees than standard questionnaires.

  4. Science & Society

    Pronatalists want more babies. Their solutions aren’t rooted in science

    Conservative pronatalists want a return to the traditional nuclear family. But that family structure is at odds with how humans evolved.

  5. Science & Society

    Social media can be addictive, a jury finds. Research hints at a link

    Instagram and YouTube intentionally designed social media platforms to hook users, a landmark court case found. A pediatrician explains the ruling’s impact.

  6. Climate

    Why we fail to notice climate change

    People quickly normalize extreme weather. Simple visuals highlighting abrupt change could help climate change break through our mental blind spots.

  7. Artificial Intelligence

    AI auto-complete may subtly shape views on social issues

    People are increasingly using AI auto-complete features when writing. Unbeknownst to them, that feature may change how they think.

  8. Anthropology

    When the fish stop biting, ice fishers follow the crowd

    Study showcases how modern-day foragers stick together when seeking food. Such social forces could help explain the emergence of complex thinking.

  9. Psychology

    With effort, procrastinators can change

    Procrastination in young adulthood is not set in stone, though change is difficult, a long-term study shows.

  10. Animals

    Among chimpanzees, thrill-seeking peaks in toddlerhood

    In humans, teens do the most dangerous things. In chimpanzees, that honor goes to toddlers. The difference may lie in caregiver supervision.

  11. Science & Society

    This new year, maybe resolve to quit

    Western cultural stories tend to emphasize perseverance. But science shows that knowing when to quit has a place in our success too.

  12. Psychology

    Chatbots spewing facts, and falsehoods, can sway voters

    Chatbots that dole out fact-laden arguments can sway voters. Those facts don’t have to be true.