Katherine J. Wu

Katherine J. Wu

 

Katherine J. Wu is a Boston-based science journalist and Story Collider senior producer whose work has appeared in National Geographic, Undark magazine, Popular Science and more. She holds a Ph.D. in Microbiology and Immunobiology from Harvard University, and was Smithsonian magazine's 2018 AAAS Mass Media Fellow.

Health care workers at Stanford and the University of Massachusetts who have placed smiling portraits of themselves on the outside of their protective gear

Portrait Project Reveals the Faces Behind Health Care Workers' Protective Gear

Doctors and nurses are attaching smiling photos of themselves to the outside of their protective gear to maintain connections with patients

Fragments of a large early Neolithic vessel that was likely used to process meat stew

Traces of Millennia-Old Milk Help Date Pottery Fragments to Neolithic London

These dairy products are no longer edible, but they're still valuable to researchers

"A Peep into the Life of a Data Scientist"

Poo-Sniffing Peeps, Miss Ameripeep and More Emerge Victorious in #PeepYourScience 2020 Competition

Blending marshmallows with scientific rigor, the contest offers levity during a difficult time

An artist's impression of 'Oumuamua, first spotted in 2017.

Scientists Suggest New Origin Story for 'Oumuamua, Our Solar System’s First Interstellar Visitor

Perhaps the cigar-shaped object is a shard from a shredded planetary body, a computer simulation suggests

Shel Silverstein's houseboat, Evil Eye, is up for sale.

Shel Silverstein's Historic Sausalito Houseboat Is Now on Sale

The children's book author and illustrator purchased the repurposed World War II vessel in 1967

Researchers recently scanned some of the oldest dinosaur embryos in the world

Digital Reconstructions Reveal 200-Million-Year-Old Dinosaur Embryo’s Unusual Teeth

New scans suggest unhatched dinosaurs reabsorbed a set of teeth during development

The epidemic claimed the lives of some 8 million pigs by spring of 2014.

A Coronavirus Spread Through U.S. Pigs in 2013. Here’s How It Was Stopped

The containment practices of outbreaks past could have lessons for modern epidemics

Decorated eggs from the Isis Tomb, Vulci, Italy, on display in the British Museum

Ornately Decorated Eggs Have Been Traded Worldwide for Thousands of Years

A new analysis of ancient ostrich eggs at the British Museum underscores the interconnectedness of the ancient world

Artist Shing Yin Khor is recreating famous works of art, including Marina Abramovic's The Artist Is Present, in "Animal Crossing."

Meet the Artist Behind Animal Crossing's Art Museum Island

The art within Shing Yin Khor's virtual world represents a sassy response to the game's built-in natural history museum

Just as northern lights appear on Earth, Saturn has auroras—and they may help explain why the ringed planet's upper atmosphere gets so hot.

Saturn's Auroras Could Help Explain the Weird Amounts of Heat in Its Atmosphere

The planet's temperatures spike around the latitudes where auroras show up

A rock samples collected during a 2010 drilling expedition in the South Pacific that found microbes in the sea floor.

Microbes Living in Deep Sea Rocks Spawn More Hope for Life on Mars

Starved of resources, these hardy bacteria still eke out a living, suggesting life forms could survive in the harsh habitats on other planets

London-based couple Filippo Lorenzin and Marianna Benetti built a miniature museum for their pet gerbils.

Quarantined Couple Builds Art Museum to Entertain Pet Gerbils

The story of two bored art lovers who found a way to "a-mouse" themselves

Times Square stands largely empty on March 22.

As COVID-19 Reshapes the World, Cultural Institutions Collect Oral Histories

Universities, libraries and museums are among the organizations seeking personal stories about the pandemic's effects on daily life

A nurse conducts a swab test for SARS-CoV-2 in Chessington, England.

Breaking Down the Two Tests That Could Help Contain the COVID-19 Pandemic

One detects an active infection; another signals that the virus has already left the body. Both are critical for tracking the spread of disease

Sometimes, love lasts a lifetime—and then some.

Researchers Find Two Fornicating Flies Enshrined in 41-Million-Year-Old Amber

A treasure trove of new fossils unearthed in Australia reveals some raunchily-positioned bugs

Researcher Charlotte Pearson points to the light tree ring that could mark the year of the Thera eruption.

Ancient Volcanic Eruption Dated Through Rings of Dead Trees

Researchers compared tree rings from around the world to determine that a volcano on Santorini probably erupted in 1560 B.C.

Olivia de Havilland's 1943 legal victory against Warner Bros. contributed to the downfall of the Hollywood studio system.

Hollywood's 'Golden Age' Saw Massive Dip in Female Film Representation

A new study ties the ousting of women directors, actors, producers and screenwriters to the rise of entertainment studios

19th-century depiction of Thomas Becket, seen with a sword piercing his head

The Fallout of a Medieval Archbishop's Murder Is Recorded in Alpine Ice

Traces of lead pollution frozen in a glacier confirm that British lead production waned just before the death of Thomas Becket

To Image a Black Hole Again, Scientists May Need to Put a Telescope on the Moon

New calculations show that the ring of light surrounding a black hole is actually made up of infinite subrings that can’t be seen with current technology

The face of a sweat bee (Megalopta amoena) that is half female (viewer's left, bee's right) and half male (viewer's right, bee's left)

Meet the Bee With a Body That’s Half Male, Half Female

So-called gynandromorphs are rare, but they can teach us a lot about development and evolution

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