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. Researchers enjoy bitter taste of success

    Scientists have identified a large family of proteins that work as taste receptors for bitterness.

  2. Earth

    Ice age forest spruces up ecology record

    Scientists have recently discovered a 10,000-year-old forest buried in the sand in Michigan.

  3. Earth

    Undersea volcano: Heard but not seen

    The search is on for an undersea eruption near the Japanese volcanic island chain.

  4. Agriculture

    Apple pests stand up to antibiotics

    Scientists are concerned about new forms of antibiotic resistance cropping up in fire blight—a deadly disease of apple trees.

  5. Earth

    Pollution Keeps Rain up in the Air

    New satellite data indicate that aerosol pollution can break up water droplets in clouds and stop rain.

  6. Earth

    Recent heat may indicate faster warming

    A new analysis of temperature records indicates that global warming may be picking up its pace.

  7. Archaeology

    Vase shows that ancients dug fossils, too

    A painting on an ancient Corinthian vase may be the first record of a fossil find.

  8. Shotgun approach bags the fruit fly genome

    Scientists announced the completion of the Drosophila genome-sequencing project.

  9. Fly naps inspire dreams of sleep genetics

    Researchers have discovered a sleep-like state in the fruit fly.

  10. Animals

    Flight puts the fight back into crickets

    Researchers are just discovering what gamblers in China have known for centuries—flying can make a losing cricket fight again.

  11. Earth

    DDT treatment turns male fish into mothers

    Injecting into fish eggs an estrogen-mimicking form of the pesticide DDT transforms genetically male medaka fish into apparent females able to lay eggs that produce young.

  12. Health & Medicine

    Meaty receptor helps tongue savor flavor

    Scientists have identified a receptor protein in taste buds that recognizes the flavor of monosodium glutamate.