Mindy Weisberger is a science journalist and author of the book "Rise of the Zombie Bugs: The Surprising Science of Parasitic Mind-Control," published by Hopkins Press. She formerly edited for Scholastic and reported for Live Science as a channel editor and senior writer. She has reported on general science, covering climate change, paleontology, biology and space. Mindy studied film at Columbia University; prior to Live Science she produced, wrote and directed media for the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. Her videos about dinosaurs, astrophysics, biodiversity and evolution appear in museums and science centers worldwide, earning awards such as the CINE Golden Eagle and the Communicator Award of Excellence. Her writing has also appeared in Scientific American, The Washington Post, How It Works Magazine and CNN.
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Social vomit and hairy eyeballs: 10 times animals grossed us out in 2021Here are some of our favorite gross-outs in science news this year.
By Mindy Weisberger Published
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In a historic launch, the Webb Telescope blasts off into spaceAn international partnership of space agencies just launched JWST, the biggest, most powerful space telescope ever made, in an achievement that was decades in the making.
By Mindy Weisberger Published
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Darkness caused by dino-killing asteroid snuffed out life on Earth in 9 monthsAfter an asteroid struck at the end of the Cretaceous period, debris from wildfires filled the atmosphere and blocked sunlight across Earth, causing ecosystem collapse and extinctions.
By Mindy Weisberger Published
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How to watch the James Webb telescope launch into spaceThe James Webb Space Telescope, an upgrade to Hubble, is scheduled to launch on Dec. 25.
By Mindy Weisberger Published
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41,000 years ago, auroras blazed near the equatorA geomagnetic event around 41,000 years ago sent the aurora wandering for centuries, as far south as the equator.
By Mindy Weisberger Published
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'Humanity has touched the sun' in a pioneering achievement for space explorationNASA's Parker Solar Probe dipped into the sun's atmosphere to sample particles from the corona — a scientific first.
By Mindy Weisberger Published
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Antarctica's 'Doomsday Glacier' could meet its doom within 3 yearsThwaites Glacier is roughly the size of Florida, and holds enough ice to raise sea levels over two feet. New research shows that the collapse of its ice shelf may be just a few years away.
By Mindy Weisberger Published
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Meat-eating dinosaurs were terrifyingly fast, footprints revealPreserved trackways from the Cretaceous period provide a rare snapshot of fast running speeds in theropod dinosaurs.
By Mindy Weisberger Published
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Here's the secret to how 'immortal' hydras regrow severed headsFor the first time, scientists have created a genetic map showing how hydras regenerate their own heads.
By Mindy Weisberger Published
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Jurassic crocodile relative could breathe easily while drowning its preyThe modern crocodile can breathe while most of its head is submerged because of specialized airway adaptations, which scientists can now trace to the Jurassic period.
By Mindy Weisberger Published
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Black widow spiders: Facts about this infamous group of arachnidsBlack widow spiders are several species of arachnids in the genus Latrodectus that are known for the females' striking appearance and rumored tendency to eat their mates.
By Mindy Weisberger Published
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More than 300 smuggled tarantulas, scorpions and giant cockroaches seized from luggage in ColombiaAuthorities at Colombia's airport in Bogotá found and confiscated hundreds of arthropods that German travelers had illegally collected and stashed in a suitcase.
By Mindy Weisberger Published
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Was Stonehenge constructed by builders fueled on 'energy bars'?Historians have found tasty new evidence that the people who built Stonehenge supplemented their meat and dairy diets with nut and fruit "energy bars" made with animal fat.
By Mindy Weisberger Published
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Biggest eagle to ever live plunged headfirst into dead prey to eat the organsHaast's eagle may have hunted large prey like an eagle, but its eating habits — targeting the internal organs — were more like those of a vulture.
By Mindy Weisberger Published
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What is fascism?Reference Fascism is a political ideology usually characterized by authoritarianism and nationalism. However, many scholars say the concept is difficult to define.
By Mindy Weisberger Published
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NASA's asteroid-deflecting DART mission just launched on a one-way trip to collide with a space rockThe DART spacecraft launched this morning on its mission to the binary asteroid Didymos, where it will collide with the space rock for science.
By Mindy Weisberger Published
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Evidence of Hanukkah's Maccabee rebellion unearthed in IsraelMore than 2,000 years ago, a guerrilla army of Jewish rebels stormed and defeated a stronghold of the occupying Seleucid Empire.
By Mindy Weisberger Published
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Video captures great white shark's gruesome attack on a seal near Cape CodA great white shark attacks a seal near Cape Cod, and video captured the gory battle.
By Mindy Weisberger Published
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NASA's launching a one-way mission to crash into an asteroid: Here's how to watch.When NASA launches the DART mission on Nov. 24, the spacecraft will embark on a months-long journey toward a distant asteroid target.
By Mindy Weisberger Published
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Deadly and massive 'Megaspider' found in Australia has fangs that can puncture a fingernailThe Australian Reptile Park recently welcomed the biggest funnel-web spider that the keepers had ever seen.
By Mindy Weisberger Published
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Mind-controlling fungus makes male flies mate with dead, infected femalesThe pathogenic fungus Entomophthora muscae doesn't just kill the flies it infects; it also turns males into sex-crazed necrophiliacs.
By Mindy Weisberger Published
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Scorpions flood Egyptian villages after storm, sting and hospitalize hundredsVenomous fat-tailed scorpions stung more than 500 people after heavy storms disrupted their habitats and brought the deadly arachnids closer to people.
By Mindy Weisberger Published
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Bees 'shriek' when attacked by giant cousins of 'murder hornets'Asian honey bees rally against giant hornet invasions with an acoustic response that resembles the alarm shrieks of birds, primates and other social mammals.
By Mindy Weisberger Published
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Brutal murder in 1908 that inspired 'Twin Peaks' is still a cold caseAuthorities never found the killer of a young woman whose homicide inspired the story of doomed Laura Palmer. A new book pieces together clues about her murder.
By Mindy Weisberger Published

