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

    Potential H7N9 bird flu vaccine shows promise

    An early trial of a bird flu vaccine suggests that the treatment could be used to counter the potentially deadly H7N9 flu virus.

  2. Environment

    Prestige oil spill linked to drop in seabird chicks

    European shag in colonies affected by the 2002 Prestige oil tanker spill produced fewer chicks than birds in oil-free colonies.

  3. Life

    Dietary fiber may curb appetite by acting on brain

    Fiber's ability to curb appetite may come from gut molecules traveling to and acting on the brain, not the gut alone.

  4. Genetics

    E. coli’s mutation rate linked to cells’ crosstalk

    When E. coli cells are in smaller crowds, their genes mutate at an increased rate.

  5. Life

    1918 flu pandemic linked to human, bird virus gene swap

    The 1918 pandemic flu, which killed up to 50 million people, may have come from a human virus and a bird virus swapping genetic material.

  6. Anthropology

    Lake Huron holds 9,000-year-old hunting blinds

    The human-made hunting blinds were arranged to drive caribou into a centralized "kill zone," suggesting cooperation among ancient hunters.

  7. Genetics

    Y chromosome gets a closer examination

    The Y chromosome may play a larger role in Turner syndrome and in health and disease differences between males and females than previously thought.

  8. Astronomy

    More details of super-bright supernova released

    A supernova whose light was magnified by a large galaxy in front of it is changing the way astronomers think about distant cosmic objects.

  9. Materials Science

    How fractals jam glassy materials

    Understanding the intricate energy landscape of glasses could help to explain what happens when glassy materials are deformed or when coffee beans in a container jam.

  10. Genetics

    Gene therapy with electrical pulses spurs nerve growth

    Deaf guinea pigs' hearing improves with electrical pulses from a hearing implant are combined with gene therapy, a new study shows.

  11. Animals

    Dolphins use sponges to dine on different grub

    The animals can learn to use tools to exploit food sources that would be otherwise unavailable, a study suggests.

  12. Genetics

    Rainbow trout genome shows how genetic material evolved

    The finding challenges the idea that whole genome duplications are followed by quick, massive reorganization and deletions of genetic material.