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. Animals

    Gene editing can make chickens resistant to bird flu

    Chickens genetically modified to be impervious to avian influenza may one day prevent the spread of the disease on farms, a study suggests.

  2. Plants

    The first citrus fruits may have come from southern China

    An in-depth look at the orange family tree shows the oldest Citrus ancestors arrived in Asia on the Indian tectonic plate over 25 million years ago.

  3. Health & Medicine

    Early mRNA research that led to COVID-19 vaccines wins 2023 medicine Nobel Prize

    Biochemists Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman devised mRNA modifications to make vaccines that trigger good immune responses instead of harmful ones.

  4. Health & Medicine

    What to know about the new RSV vaccine for pregnant people

    Data on the FDA-approved Pfizer vaccine are promising. Questions about safety and how it might be used in conjunction with another new RSV shot remain.

  5. Health & Medicine

    What should we expect from the coronavirus this fall?

    The virus may be reaching a phase of baseline circulation, says epidemiologist Aubree Gordon. But it’s unclear what will happen in the next few months.

  6. Animals

    Macaques in Puerto Rico learned to share shade after Hurricane Maria

    Animals that spent more time together on hot afternoons were less likely to die during the years following the storm, a new study finds.

  7. Health & Medicine

    ‘Blight’ warns that a future pandemic could start with a fungus

    ‘The Last of Us’ is fiction, but the health dangers posed by fungi are real, a new book explains.

  8. Health & Medicine

    With a new body mapping technique, mouse innards glow with exquisite detail

    Removing cholesterol from mouse bodies lets fluorescently labeled proteins infiltrate every tissue, helping researchers to map entire body systems.

  9. Life

    In Australia, mosquitoes and possums may spread a flesh-eating disease

    Field surveys show that genetically identical bacteria responsible for a skin disease called Buruli ulcer appear in mosquitos, possums and people.

  10. Health & Medicine

    Four things to know about malaria cases in the United States

    Five people have picked up malaria in the United States without traveling abroad. The risk of contracting the disease remains extremely low.

  11. Life

    Young squash bugs seek out adults’ poop for an essential microbe

    Squash bug nymphs don’t rely on their parents to pick up a bacterium they’d die without. They find it on their own.

  12. Astronomy

    50 years ago, a search for proof that the Maya tracked comets came up short

    The mystery of whether the ancient civilization tracked comets endures, but recent evidence hints the Maya tracked related meteor showers.