![Tina Hesman Saey](https://i0.wp.com/www.sciencenews.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/t_saey.jpg?resize=214%2C214&ssl=1)
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
- Health & Medicine
Narcolepsy linked to immune system
Genome association study finds a second connection between the sleep disorder and the body's disease-fighting apparatus
- Health & Medicine
Brain reads word-by-word
The brain reads words as whole units and processes the information quickly, two studies suggest.
- Life
Connectivity may play role in autism
Large studies of autism suggest connections between neurons are the culprit.
- Health & Medicine
Morning birds buckle under sleep pressure
Sleep pressure helps set the circadian clocks of early birds and night owls.
- Life
New neurons don’t heal
New neurons produced in the brain after a stroke don’t grow into all the cell types needed to heal the wound.
- Health & Medicine
Seemingly misplaced DNA acts as lenses
Nocturnal animals orient DNA in retinal cells to focus light.
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- Health & Medicine
The other, friendly fat
Brown fat is active in adult humans and could help keep people lean.
- Health & Medicine
Sleep may clear the decks for next day’s learning
Two separate studies suggest that sleep reduces connections between neurons in fruit flies’ brains.
- Chemistry
Prions are common, at least in yeast
A new study of shape-shifting proteins in baker’s yeast reveals that prions are common and may help organisms survive in changing conditions.
- Life
Genes help monarchs migrate
At least 40 genes help monarch butterflies find their way to overwintering sites in Mexico.
- Life
Dissing a loaded label for some unicellular life
Prominent biologist calls ‘prokaryote’ outdated term.