Erin Garcia de Jesús

Staff Writer

Erin Garcia de Jesús is a staff writer at Science News. She holds a Ph.D. in microbiology from the University of Washington, where she studied virus/host co-evolution. After deciding science as a whole was too fascinating to spend a career studying one topic, she went on to earn a master’s in science communication from the University of California, Santa Cruz. Her writing has appeared in Nature News, Science, Eos, Smithsonian Voices and more, and she was the winter 2019 science writing intern at Science News.

All Stories by Erin Garcia de Jesús

  1. Neuroscience

    Some healthy fish have bacteria in their brains

    Animals including mammals usually protect their brains from infiltrating microbes that can cause disease. But some fish seem to do just fine.

  2. Health & Medicine

    California droughts may help valley fever spread

    Droughts temporarily dampen the number of valley fever cases across the state, but cases spike in the years after rains return.

  3. Health & Medicine

    50 years ago, some of plastic’s toxic hazards were exposed

    Worker exposure to vinyl chloride became tightly regulated after the chemical was linked with liver cancer. Now, its use may be on the chopping block.

  4. Health & Medicine

    Extreme heat and rain are fueling rising cases of mosquito-borne diseases

    Extreme Climate Update looks at the perfect storm climate change is creating for mosquitoes and the diseases they carry, like dengue and West Nile.

  5. Animals

    This spider uses trapped fireflies to lure in more prey

    Male fireflies trapped in the spider’s web flash femalelike lights, possibly luring in other flying males and allowing the arachnid to stock up on food.

  6. Paleontology

    This spiky fossil shows what early mollusks looked like

    The fossil, plus 17 others from more than 500 million years ago, reveal that early mollusks were slug-like creatures with prickly armor.

  7. Neuroscience

    A hunger protein reverses anorexia symptoms in mice

    Boosting levels of protein ACBP spurred the mice to eat and gain weight. It is unclear if any drugs based on the protein might help people with anorexia.

  8. Health & Medicine

    Your medications might make it harder for you to beat the heat

    Chronic illnesses and the medications that treat them may make it harder to handle extreme heat. It’s even harder to study how.

  9. Animals

    Komodo dragon teeth get their strength from an iron coat

    Studying the reptile’s ironclad teeth in more detail could help solve a dinosaur dental mystery.

  10. Humans

    World record speeds for two Olympics events have fallen over time. We can go faster

    The human body can go faster in the 100-meter dash and the 50-meter freestyle. But to reach full potential, our technique must be perfect.

  11. Health & Medicine

    Bird flu has been invading the brains of mammals. Here’s why

    Although H5N1 and its relatives can cause mild disease in some animals, these viruses are more likely to infect brain tissue than other types of flu.

  12. Health & Medicine

    Bird flu viruses may infect mammary glands more commonly than thought

    H5N1 turning up in cow milk was a big hint. The virus circulating in U.S. cows can infect the mammary glands of mice and ferrets, too.