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. Health & Medicine

    Human body lice could harbor the plague and spread it through biting 

    Rats and fleas previously got all the blame, but humans’ own parasites could be involved.

  2. Health & Medicine

    Genetic analyses of the bird flu virus unveil its evolution and potential

    The H5N1 outbreak in cattle is giving flashbacks to the COVID pandemic. But this time is different.

  3. Health & Medicine

    Cows might host both human and bird flus

    Both kinds of influenza viruses may break into cattle cells using receptors similar to those in people, wild birds and poultry.

  4. Health & Medicine

    Traces of bird flu are showing up in cow milk. Here’s what to know

    We asked the experts: Should people be worried? Pasteurization and the H5N1 virus’s route to infection suggests risks to people remains low.

  5. Life

    A vaccine for bees has an unexpected effect

    Honeybees vaccinated against a bacterial disease were also protected from a viral disease.

  6. Life

    During a total solar eclipse, some colors really pop. Here’s why

    As a solar eclipse approaches totality and our eyes adjust to dimming light, our color vision changes. It’s called the Purkinje effect.

  7. Genetics

    Here’s why some pigeons do backflips

    Meet the scientist homing in on the genes involved in making parlor roller pigeons do backward somersaults.

  8. Health & Medicine

    Don’t use unsterilized tap water to rinse your sinuses. It may carry brain-eating amoebas

    Two new studies document rare cases in which people who rinsed sinuses with unsterilized tap got infected with brain-eating amoebas.

  9. Planetary Science

    The desert planet in ‘Dune’ is plausible, according to science

    Humans could live on the fictional planet Arrakis from Dune but (thankfully) no giant sandworms would menace them.

  10. Neuroscience

    Ancient viruses helped speedy nerves evolve

    A retrovirus embedded in the DNA of some vertebrates helps turn on production of a protein needed to insulate nerve cells, aiding speedy thoughts.

  11. Health & Medicine

    Newfound immune cells are responsible for long-lasting allergies

    A specialized type of immune cell appears primed to make the type of antibodies that lead to allergies, two research groups report.

  12. Microbes

    Bird flu viruses may pack tools that help them infect human cells

    Bringing along their own ANP32 proteins may give avian flu viruses a jump-start on copying themselves to adapt to and infect humans and other animals.