Senior writer Tina Hesman Saey is a geneticist-turned-science writer who covers all things microscopic and a few too big to be viewed under a microscope. She is an honors graduate of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln where she did research on tobacco plants and ethanol-producing bacteria. She spent a year as a Fulbright scholar at the Georg-August University in Göttingen, Germany, studying microbiology and traveling. Her work on how yeast turn on and off one gene earned her a Ph.D. in molecular genetics at Washington University in St. Louis. Tina then rounded out her degree collection with a master’s in science journalism from Boston University. She interned at the Dallas Morning News and Science News before returning to St. Louis to cover biotechnology, genetics and medical science for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. After a seven year stint as a newspaper reporter, she returned to Science News. Her work has been honored by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, the Endocrine Society, the Genetics Society of America and by journalism organizations.
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All Stories by Tina Hesman Saey
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Health & Medicine
Asperger’s syndrome may not lead to lack of empathy
People with high-functioning autism respond to others' pain, two studies show.
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Life
Rest in peace nanobacteria, you were not alive after all
New studies bid a fond farewell to nanobacteria -- the extremely tiny “microorganisms” that have sparked controversy and may cause disease.
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Health & Medicine
Body and Brain: Possible link between inflammation and bipolar disorder
Inflammatory genes create a signature for bipolar disorder in some people.
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Foul Play: Genetics may affect athlete doping tests
Athletes' genetic makeup may allow them to beat anti-doping tests.
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Dad’s Hidden Influence
Fathers share more than genes with their children. Where a man works, the chemicals he is exposed to, and even his age can leave a medical legacy for future children.
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Alzheimer’s mystery protein unmasked
A protein linked to Alzheimer's disease may help young people forget, too.
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Aging Factor: Gene mutations may be key to long life
Some centenarians carry mutations in a pathway associated with longevity in worms and fruit flies.
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Health & Medicine
Sun, inflammation speed aging of skin
Gene profiles show inflammation is the key to making skin age, and sun exposure speeds the process.
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Micromanagers
Some scientists believe the human brain is the creation of RNA. Only noncoding RNAs are plentiful, and powerful enough to handle the billions of complex interactions the brain faces every day.
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Swell, a Pain Lesson: Gut microbes needed for immune development
Intestinal bacteria train the immune system to cause pain and swelling, but that's a good thing.