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.

All Stories by Bethany Brookshire

  1. Neuroscience

    The molecular path of best resilience

    Many studies focus on susceptibility to stress and how it triggers depression. But a new study highlights a protein important in resilience, showing that resisting stress takes work, too.

  2. Health & Medicine

    Add high-fat diet to the ‘don’t’ list for pregnant moms

    There’s always controversy over what to eat while pregnant. Four animal studies at this year’s Society for Neuroscience meeting bring together negative effects of high-fat diets.

  3. Neuroscience

    After injury, estrogen may shield the brain

    Estrogen helps to prevent some of the chronic inflammation that occurs after brain injury.

  4. Neuroscience

    Mold may mean bad news for the brain

    Living with mold isn’t good for your lungs. A study in mice shows that mold exposure may also cause inflammation that is bad for the brain.

  5. Neuroscience

    Serotonin lies at the intersection of pain and itch

    Serotonin may help relieve pain, but it also causes itch. A study shows why scratching just makes it worse.

  6. Neuroscience

    For a friendlier zebra finch, just add stress

    Adding stress hormones to the diet of developing zebra finches produced birds that were social butterflies.

  7. Climate

    Melting ice forces walrus detour

    Warming temperatures and shrinking summer ice cover have forced the animals to seek solid ground during feeding season.

  8. Neuroscience

    Study of psychiatric disorders is difficult in man and mouse

    Studying human psychiatric disorders in animals presents a challenge. A new study highlights one of the ways scientists can study human mutations by slipping them into mice.

  9. Science & Society

    Is NIH policy the best way to sex equality in studies?

    A new NIH policy will require females to be studied alongside males in preclinical studies. The mandate comes with both opportunities and challenges, and little funding.

  10. Animals

    A stressful youth makes for a devoted finch dad

    Stress is generally thought to be a bad thing. But a new study shows that under certain conditions, a stressful childhood could make a zebra finch a better father.

  11. Neuroscience

    Melatonin and the watery beginnings of sleep

    The tiny zooplankton Platynereis dumerilii use melatonin just as much as we do, suggesting that the origins of sleeplike behavior may lie under the sea.

  12. Ecosystems

    Help scientists find floating forests of kelp

    By looking for signs of kelp in satellite images, citizen scientists can help researchers keep track of the world’s seaweed forests.