Tina Hesman Saey

Senior Writer, Molecular Biology, Science News

Science News 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 Endocrine Society, the Genetics Society of America and by journalism organizations.

All Stories by Tina Hesman Saey

  1. Archaeology

    Ötzi the Iceman’s DNA reveals his looks and ancestry

    A reanalysis of the ancient guy’s genes shows he was balding and had dark skin. He also had an unusual amount of early farmer ancestry.

  2. Chemistry

    Creation of quantum dots wins 2023 chemistry Nobel

    The award honors three scientists who discovered and built quantum dots, which are now used in everything from TVs to medical tools.

  3. Health & Medicine

    RNA work that led to COVID-19 vaccines wins 2023 Nobel in medicine

    Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman overcame hurdles to using mRNA for medicine. This led to COVID vaccines — and maybe, one day, some for other infections.

  4. Tech

    A ‘mini cyclone’ helps detect coronavirus in the air

    A new device can detect from seven to 35 coronavirus particles per liter of air in minutes. That’s close to a PCR test’s sensitivity — but much quicker.

  5. Health & Medicine

    Humans might be able to hibernate during space travel

    Scientists are studying how animals hibernate and developing new technologies to help humans sleep through space travel.

  6. Health & Medicine

    Explainer: Why it’s easier to get sick in the winter

    Low humidity helps viruses survive, and cold weather blunts some of the body’s immune responses — making colds and other viral infections more likely.

  7. Health & Medicine

    An asthma treatment may also help tame cat allergies

    Adding a therapy used to treat asthma improved cat allergy symptoms for more than a year, a small study found.

  8. Animals

    If mosquitoes vanished, would we miss them? Vampire spiders might

    Vampire spiders get their meals from blood-filled Anopheles mosquitoes. But if those insects disappear, the spiders will likely adapt.

  9. Health & Medicine

    Should we use a genetic weapon against mosquitoes carrying malaria?

    One gene drive to eliminate malaria seems to work in the lab. Now it’s time to ask local people if they want it released in the wild.

  10. Health & Medicine

    Examining Neandertal and Denisovan DNA wins a 2022 Nobel Prize

    Svante Pääbo figured out how to examine the genetic material from these hominid ‘cousins’ of modern humans.

  11. Health & Medicine

    Dogs and other animals could aid the spread of monkeypox

    Now that monkeypox has spread to a dog, researchers fear other species could help the virus become widespread outside of Africa for the first time.

  12. Health & Medicine

    Explainer: What is mpox (formerly monkeypox)?

    Once rare, the viral disease monkeypox exploded onto the global scene for the first time in 2022.