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.

An amateur astronomer in India doggedly searched for the remnants of the country's Vikram lander after it crashed into the lunar south pole.

Amateur Astronomer Locates India's Moon Lander Crash Site

After blipping out of contact in September, India’s Vikram lander has now been found strewn across the lunar surface

Indian Roller on Sandalwood Branch, by Shaikh Zain ud-Din, Impey Album, Calcutta, 1780.

London Exhibit Celebrates Indian Artists Who Captured Natural History for the East India Company

Paintings once anonymized as "company art" will finally be labeled with the names of their creators

When the scientists played the sounds of healthy coral ecosystems at damaged reefs, 50 percent more species showed up than at quiet sites.

One Way to Lure Fish Back to Damaged Reefs? Play the Sounds of Living Coral

The find is fascinating, but can’t save these marine ecosystems by itself

Red blood cells imaged by a scanning electron microscope.

Harmful Bacteria Masquerade as Red Blood Cells to Evade the Immune System

Studying the stealthy strategy could help researchers develop new treatments for group A strep infections, which kill more than 500,000 people each year

Historical texts, pollen samples and mortuary archaeology suggest the Justinianic plague was not as devastating as previously believed.

The Justinianic Plague's Devastating Impact Was Likely Exaggerated

A new analysis fails to find evidence that the infamous disease reshaped sixth-century Europe

Google's new artificial intelligence program, AlphaZero, taught itself to play chess, shogi, and Go in a matter of hours, and outperforms the top-ranking AIs in the gameplay arena.

Google's New AI Is a Master of Games, but How Does It Compare to the Human Mind?

After building AlphaGo to beat the world's best Go players, Google DeepMind built AlphaZero to take on the world's best machine players

India is now home to about 2,500 tigers—over half the world’s population.

Man-Eating Tigress Killed in India, Lured by Calvin Klein Cologne

Indian officials say the hunters initially attempted tranquilizing the animal, but killed her, reportedly in self-defense, in the end

Feast your eyes on the blind Somalian cavefish, which has—like mammals—mysteriously lost the ability to use light to fix damaged DNA.

Blind Cavefish Shed Light on the Dark Days of Mammalian Evolution

Like mammals, these cave-dwelling creatures have discarded a solar-powered system that repairs UV-damaged DNA

Scientists used modified egg and stem cells to create female mice with two mothers. These fatherless mice grew up to have babies of their own (through more typical means of conception).

Scientists Break the Rules of Reproduction by Breeding Mice From Single-Sex Parents

By tinkering with the genes of sperm and egg cells, it's possible to breed mice from two females—and even from two males

Agglutinated walls in Palaeopascichnus linearis from the khatyspyt formation

Oldest Known Macroscopic Skeletal Organism Was Masquerading as Fossilized Feces

Some researchers initially dismissed the remains of Palaeopascichnus lineari as teeny turds from a bygone era

Polar bears are shown scavenging on the carcass of a dead bowhead whale that washed ashore on Wrangel Island, Russia.

Polar Bears May Soon Feast on Whale Carcasses. Global Warming is to Blame.

This scavenging strategy saved sleuths of bears in the past, but it’s not sustainable as temperatures climb at unprecedented rates

Child's left-foot sock

1,700-Year-Old Sock Spins Yarn About Ancient Egyptian Fashion

This stripy toe sock appears to have warmed the foot of a tot in the late antiquity period

In a newly released report, a team of nearly 100 scientists from around the world stress the urgency of combating climate change.

The World Was Just Issued 12-Year Ultimatum On Climate Change

Leading climate scientists paint dire portrait of years to come if we maintain carbon-emission status quo

Sans Forgetica is the Typeface You Won't Forget

This “memory-boosting” font is stylized with a left-leaning slant and gaps in each letter meant to encourage your eyes to linger longer

Pottery shards from Pulau Ay site

Ancient Precursor to Pumpkin Spice Latte? Archaeologists Uncover Earliest Human Use of Nutmeg

Shards of ancient ceramics on Pulau Ay reveal nutmeg's early history

Bite marks on the pterosaur bone match up with the teeth of two prehistoric fish: a Saurodon (pictured here) and a Squalicorax.

Prehistoric Sharks Chowed Down on Pterosaurs

Even 83 million years ago, top carnivores considered wings a tasty treat

Millennial mainstays like “twerk,” “emoji” and “listicle" have been included in the official Scrabble dictionary.

"OK," "Sheeple" Says Scrabble, Which Added 300 New Words to Official Dictionary

“For a living language, the only constant is change,” says Peter Sokolowski, editor at large for Merriam-Webster

An artist’s impression of the prehistoric bird from the early Cretaceous period that retained some pretty dino-like features.

This 127-Million-Year-Old Fossil Links Dinosaur and Bird Evolution

The dino-bird hybrid boasts a stubby tail, clawed wings and sharp teeth

Portrait of Galileo Galilei (1636) by Justus Sustermans

Newly Discovered Letter Catches Galileo in a 400-Year-Old Lie

Fearing repercussions of his groundbreaking scientific claims, which flew in the face of church doctrine, the famed astronomer fibbed

Ants and honey bees have been observed reproducing without males before, and now all-female termite colonies join the asexual group.

All-Female Termite Colonies Reproduce Without Male Input

These insects seem to have dispensed entirely of the need for males and their sperm

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