Bethany Brookshire
Staff Writer, Science News for Students, 2013–2021
Bethany Brookshire was the staff writer at Science News for Students from 2013 to 2021. She has a B.S. in biology and a B.A. in philosophy from The College of William and Mary, and a Ph.D. in physiology and pharmacology from Wake Forest University School of Medicine. She is also a host on the podcast Science for the People, and a 2019-2020 MIT Knight Science Journalism Fellow.
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All Stories by Bethany Brookshire
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Science & Society
Home-brewed heroin: Hold the hype
Now is the time to think about policy for synthetically produced morphine, but the process, if it bears out, is years away from working.
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Science & Society
Tech in the classroom foreseen 50 years ago
Fifty years ago, scientists were looking forward to technology in the classroom.
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Neuroscience
Diet and nutrition is more complex than a simple sugar
A new study shows that fructose may leave you wanting more when compared to the same dose of glucose. But in studies of single nutrients, it’s important to be cautious.
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Neuroscience
A vivid emotional experience requires the right genetics
A single gene deletion gives some people an extra vivid jolt to their emotional experience, a new study shows.
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Neuroscience
For the blind, hearing the way forward can be a tradeoff
Many blind people have enhanced hearing. A new study shows that the ability to hear your way forward might come at the cost of hearing up and down.
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Chemistry
A chemistry card game forges bonds
A new card game lets players brush up on chemistry by making compounds out of ions. Form some bonds and have fun in the process.
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Microbes
City- and country-dwelling microbes aren’t so different
A new study reveals the microbial communities in our nation’s dust.
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Science & Society
A peer-reviewed study finds value in peer-reviewed research
The best scoring peer-reviewed grants are associated with more papers and patents, a new study finds. But whether peer review is the best system is another question entirely.
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Health & Medicine
Apple’s ResearchKit wants your health data
Apple seeks recruits for health studies. But with uncertain measurements and lots of effort required to participate, the desire to help research may extend only so far.
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Neuroscience
Serotonin and the science of sex
Some scientists say that low serotonin makes male mice mate with males and females. Others disagree. In the end, it’s not about sexual preference, but about how science works.
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Science & Society
Women in engineering engage best with gender parity
There are many hypotheses as to why women don’t stay in science or engineering. A new study puts an intervention to the test.
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Life
Bright bird plumage resulted from natural, sexual selection
Darwin hypothesized that bird color differences resulted from sexual selection. Wallace disagreed. A study shows that both were right after all.