Tina Hesman Saey

Tina Hesman Saey

Senior Writer, Molecular Biology

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.

All Stories by Tina Hesman Saey

  1. Life

    Body’s bacteria don’t outnumber human cells so much after all

    New calculations show human cells about equal bacteria in the body.

  2. Life

    Gene tweak led to humans’ big toe

    For lack of gene regulator, the human big toe appeared.

  3. Health & Medicine

    Anatomy of the South Korean MERS outbreak

    The Middle East respiratory syndrome virus, which infected 186 people in South Korea in 2015, quickly spread within and between hospitals via a handful of “superspreaders.”

  4. Life

    Tweaking the pattern equations

    A more than 60-year-old theory about how patterns in nature form gets an update.

  5. Life

    Upending daily rhythm triggers fat cell growth

    Constant production of stress hormone spurs fat growth.

  6. Genetics

    Roosters run afoul of genetic rules

    Moms aren’t always the only ones that pass mitochondrial DNA to offspring, a study of chickens finds.

  7. Life

    For water bears, the glass is all full

    When dried, water bears turn into glass.

  8. Life

    In the body, cells move like flocks of birds or schools of fish

    Cells move in groups similarly to flocks of birds and schools of fish

  9. Life

    Cancer cells get help migrating through the body

    Helper cells may give cancer a straight shot to spread through the body.

  10. Life

    Muscle repair gets spooky help

    Ghost fibers are tunnels that stem cells can use to rebuild muscles fiber by fiber.

  11. Genetics

    Year in review: Breakthrough gene editor sparks ethics debate

    The gene editing system CRISPR has opened the door to new scientific advancements — and ethical concerns.

  12. Science & Society

    Year in review: Scientists tackle the irreproducibility problem

    In 2015, several research groups reported the extent to which experimental results don't hold up to replication.