Helen Thompson

Helen Thompson

Multimedia Editor

Helen Thompson is the multimedia editor at Science News. She makes videos, creates data visuals, helps manage the website, wrangles cats and occasionally writes about things like dandelion flight and whale evolution. She has undergraduate degrees in biology and English from Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas, a master’s degree in science writing from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, and strong opinions about tacos. Before Science News, she wrote for Smithsonian, NPR.org, National Geographic, Nature and others.

All Stories by Helen Thompson

  1. Ötzi the Iceman
    Archaeology

    Ötzi loaded up on fatty food before he died

    A new analysis provides a complete picture of what was in Ötzi the Iceman’s stomach when he died.

  2. Ebola nurses in Congo
    Health & Medicine

    Ebola vaccinations begin in Congo

    A vaccination campaign is up and running to fight the ongoing Ebola outbreak in Congo. It’s the first of its kind.

  3. Health workers at Bikoro Hospital
    Health & Medicine

    What we know about the Ebola outbreak, and the vaccine that might help

    Even as an experimental vaccine arrives in Congo to contain the virus, there are worrisome signs Ebola has spread to a city.

  4. bowhead whale
    Animals

    See (and hear) the stunning diversity of bowhead whales’ songs

    Bowhead whales display a huge range in their underwater melodies, but the drivers behind this diversity remain murky.

  5. cicadas
    Genetics

    Cicadas on different schedules can hybridize

    A new genetic study suggests that cicadas that emerge every 17 years have swapped genetic material with those that emerge every 13 years.

  6. pig
    Health & Medicine

    A new coronavirus is killing pigs in China

    Genetic evidence identifies a previously unknown coronavirus that’s causing problems in pigs.

  7. fishing net washed ashore
    Environment

    The great Pacific garbage patch may be 16 times as massive as we thought

    The giant garbage patch between Hawaii and California weighs at least 79,000 tons, a new estimate suggests.

  8. wolf pup
    Animals

    How oral vaccines could save Ethiopian wolves from extinction

    A mass oral vaccination program in Ethiopian wolves could pave the way for other endangered species and help humans, too.

  9. illustration of early Earth
    Planetary Science

    How a vaporized Earth might have cooked up the moon

    A high-speed collision turned the early Earth into a hot, gooey space doughnut, and the moon formed within this synestia, a new simulation suggests.

  10. fossil footprints
    Paleontology

    Fossil footprints may put lizards on two feet 110 million years ago

    Fossilized footprints found in South Korea could be the earliest evidence of two-legged running in lizards.

  11. Havre volcanic edifice
    Earth

    Robots map largest underwater volcanic eruption in 100 years

    High-resolution mapping of a 2012 underwater volcanic eruption just goes to show there’s a lot we don’t know about deep-sea volcanism.

  12. frog video screenshot
    Science & Society

    Watch our most-viewed videos of 2017

    Cassini’s demise, cuttlefish and the Curiosity rover topped our list of most popular videos of 2017.