Don’t Dumb it Down, and Other Science Writing Tips and Tricks

Bethany Brookshire, PhD, Science Journalist

Website | Twitter @Beebrookshire

Abstract

Bethany Brookshire, science journalist and author of Pests: How Humans Create Animal Villains, made the transition from scientist to science writer. Along the way, she learned how many assumptions non-scientists make about scientific writing…and how many assumptions scientists make about non-scientific readers. The world of science writing is, in its way, just as much of a specialty as genomics, and Brookshire is here to pull back the curtain on it all.

Related links:

• Pests: How Humans Create Animal Villains (also available as audiobook)

Related same-day events:

• 4:30-5:30 PM – Pests: How Humans Create Animal Villains, @ Fishbowl Forum, D.H. Hill Library


• 7:00-8:30 PM –  A conversation with Dr. Bethany Brookshire and NCMNS Mammalogist Dr. Mike Cove, WRAL 3D Theater, NC Museum of Natural Science (to be filmed by C-SPAN!)

Speaker Bio

Bethany Brookshire is a freelance science journalist and the author of the December 2022 book, Pests: How Humans Create Animal Villains. She is also a host and producer on the podcast Science for the People. She is a former staff writer with Science News magazine and Science News for Students, a digital magazine covering the latest in scientific research for kids ages 9-14. Her freelance writing has appeared in Scientific American, Science News magazine, Science News Explores, The Atlantic, the Washington Post, Slate and other outlets. Bethany has a PhD in Physiology and Pharmacology from the Wake Forest University School of Medicine. She was a 2019-2020 Knight Science Journalism Fellow at MIT.

GES Colloquium (GES 591-002) is jointly taught by Drs. Jen Baltzegar and Dawn Rodriguez-Ward, who you may contact with any class-specific questions. Colloquium will generally be live-streamed via Zoom, with monthly in-person meetings in the 1911 Building, Room 129. Please subscribe to the GES newsletter and Twitter for updates.

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