photo of Ashley Yeager

Ashley Yeager

Associate News Editor

Ashley Yeager is the associate news editor at Science News. Previously, she worked at The Scientist, where she was an associate editor for nearly three years. She has also worked as a freelance editor and writer, and as a writer at the Simons Foundation, Duke University and the W.M. Keck Observatory. She was the web producer for Science News from 2013 to 2015, and was an intern at the magazine in the summer of 2008. She holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and a master’s degree in science writing from MIT. Her book, Bright Galaxies, Dark Matter and Beyond, on the life of astronomer Vera Rubin, will be published by MIT Press in August.

All Stories by Ashley Yeager

  1. Health & Medicine

    States’ pot laws linked to drug overdose death rates

    Death rates from drug overdoses appear to be lower in states with medical marijuana laws.

  2. Life

    Malaria parasite’s invasion of blood cells tweezed apart

    Tugging on malaria-causing parasite cells with laser optical tweezers suggest that the parasite cells interact only weakly with red blood cells and that the interactions could be disrupted with drugs or antibodies.

  3. Computing

    Thousand-robot swarm self-assembles into complex shapes

    A swarm of a thousand tiny robots can now self-assemble into complex shapes, suggesting scientists have taken a step forward in engineering collective artificial intelligence

  4. Physics

    Common motion emerges in swarms of only 10 midges

    A swarm of midges may start to fly as a collective group with as few as 10 individuals, a new study shows.

  5. Planetary Science

    Rosetta spacecraft confabs with a comet

    After a 10-year chase, ESA’s Rosetta spacecraft has met up with comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko.

  6. Computing

    Barrel jellyfish may hunt with new kind of math

    Barrel jellyfish use a new type of mathematical movement pattern to forage for food, a new study suggests.

  7. Anthropology

    ‘Hobbit’ may have been human with Down syndrome

    A reanalysis of a skull scientists used to argue for the hobbit species Homo floresiensis suggests the woman was a modern human with features of Down syndrome.

  8. Planetary Science

    Rosetta spacecraft gets better view of comet’s fuzz

    News images are giving astronomers a sense of the size of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko's coma and the shape of its core.

  9. Environment

    Deepwater Horizon damage footprint larger than thought

    In the Gulf of Mexico, most deep-sea corals have escaped damage from the Deepwater Horizon blowout. However, the impact does extend deeper and wider than previously thought.

  10. Quantum Physics

    Birds’ turns match math of quantum matter

    Equations that describe superfluidity may explain how information about which way and when to turn spreads in a starling flock.

  11. Health & Medicine

    Tests hint at trouble with pairing cystic fibrosis drugs

    Combining two types of cystic fibrosis drugs may cancel out the benefits of one of the medications.

  12. Genetics

    Airborne MERS virus found in Saudi Arabian camel barn

    The air in a Saudi Arabian camel barn holds genetic fragments of MERS, a new study shows.