Skyler Ware

Skyler Ware

AAAS Mass Media Fellow, Summer 2023

Skyler Ware was the 2023 AAAS Mass Media Fellow with Science News. She is a fifth-year Ph.D. student at Caltech, where she studies chemical reactions that use or create electricity. Her writing has appeared in ZME Science and the Council for the Advancement of Science Writing’s New Horizons Newsroom, among other outlets.

All Stories by Skyler Ware

  1. An illustration of a clump of iron oxide nanoparticles, illustrated in orange, coated with phosphonic acid, illustrated in gray. While a collection of green estrogen bits are scattered around.
    Chemistry

    Magnetic ‘rusty’ nanoparticles pull estrogen out of water

    Iron oxide particles adorned with “sticky” molecules trap estrogen in water, possibly limiting the hormone’s harmful effects on aquatic life.

  2. An illustration of the newly discovered ancient whale species.
    Paleontology

    Meet the tiny ancient whale named after King Tut

    The newly discovered Tutcetus rayanensis lived about 40 million years ago. It was just 2.5 meters long and weighed less than 200 kilograms.

  3. An illustration of a DNA helix on a dark blue background.
    Genetics

    The ‘unknome’ catalogs nearly 2 million proteins. Many are mysterious

    Scientists have unveiled a new database that emphasizes how much we still don’t know about human proteins and genes.

  4. An illustration of an ancient whale under water with much smaller fish swimming around the massive creature.
    Paleontology

    A colossal ancient whale could be the heaviest animal ever known

    Perucetus colossus may have tipped the scales at up to 340 metric tons, but some scientists are skeptical it could have sustained that mass.

  5. A montage of images from the James Webb Space Telescope showing a wide collection of stars.
    Space

    The James Webb telescope may have spotted stars powered by dark matter

    Three objects in the distant universe bear signs of hypothesized “dark stars,” researchers claim, though others say more definitive data are needed.

  6. A photo of a nurse taking blood from a patient's arm to screen for iron deficiency and anemia.
    Health & Medicine

    Iron deficiency goes unnoticed in too many U.S. female adolescents

    Low iron causes problems from dizziness to severe anemia. It’s time to reevaluate screening guidelines to catch the problem earlier, an expert argues.

  7. A photo of two cars parked next to each other. The car on the left is covered by a large white tarp that is wrapped around it while the car on the right is pink and exposed.
    Materials Science

    This ‘thermal cloak’ keeps spaces from getting either too hot or cold

    A new thermal fabric prototype could help keep cars, buildings and other spaces a comfortable temperature during heat waves while reducing CO₂ emissions.

  8. A close up photo of a car's tire while it drives on a black top road.
    Chemistry

    Tear-resistant rubbery materials could pave the way for tougher tires

    Adding easy-to-break molecular connectors surprisingly makes materials harder to tear and could one day reduce microplastic pollution from car tires.

  9. An image of a digital reconstruction of an Asteroxylon mackiei plant.
    Life

    A 407-million-year-old plant’s leaves skipped the usual Fibonacci spirals

    Most land plants living today have spiral patterns involving the famous Fibonacci sequence of numbers. But an extinct, ancient plant did not.

  10. A satellite image of the Hunga Tonga volcano when it erupted in 2022 with a large circle of smoke visible in the middle of blue water and other clouds.

    The Hunga Tonga eruption sparked the highest-altitude lightning ever recorded

    The plume from the 2022 eruption spawned flashes of lightning that started 20 to 30 kilometers above sea level.