Katherine J. Wu

Katherine J. Wu

 

Katherine J. Wu is a Boston-based science journalist and Story Collider senior producer whose work has appeared in National Geographic, Undark magazine, Popular Science and more. She holds a Ph.D. in Microbiology and Immunobiology from Harvard University, and was Smithsonian magazine's 2018 AAAS Mass Media Fellow.

Recent excavations in the ancient Greek city of Pylos revealed a gold pendant featuring the likeness of Hathor, an Egyptian goddess who was a protector of the dead.

Artifacts in Gold-Lined Tombs Hint at Ancient Greek Trade Relationships

The gilded graves, built some 3,500 years ago, likely housed high-status individuals who displayed their wealth with objects from abroad

Mrs. Maisel's pink wool house coat and peignoir nightgown, worn in the pilot episode, and black dress, worn in the season one finale

Two Dresses From 'The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel' Are Coming to the Smithsonian

Though plans aren't finalized, the costumes might feature in the National Museum of American History's upcoming "Entertaining America" exhibition

The bitty ant on top of the big one is a newly-described species of "rodeo ant," a queen that rides atop her perch by biting its waist.

Texan 'Rodeo Ants' Ride on the Backs of Bigger Ants

The strategy helps the parasitic riders steal food and childcare from their hosts

The blue monkey fresco at Akrotiri, an ancient settlement on the Aegean island of Thera, or modern-day Santorini

Painted Bronze Age Monkeys Hint at the Interconnectedness of the Ancient World

The fascinating "tail" of how Indian monkeys might have ended up in a Minoan painting

Humpback whales being tagged by researchers off the coast of Antarctica in 2018. The data gathered revealed that diet largely dictates a whales' maximum size.

Whales Are the Biggest Animals to Ever Exist—Why Aren't They Bigger?

New research highlights the role diet plays in dictating a cetacean’s size

The Wedding Dance by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, 1566

Detroit Exhibit Celebrates Bruegel's 'The Wedding Dance' and Its Controversial Codpieces

The painting’s frank depiction of drunk frivolity—and male anatomy—didn’t sit well with some viewers

An artist's impression of the upcoming ClearSpace-1 robot using its four arms to capture a piece of space debris that was left behind in 2013.

The European Space Agency Is Sending a Robot to Hug Junk Out of Space

The mission, set to launch in 2025, will be the first to remove a piece of debris from Earth’s lower orbit

Six humanoid figures with animal features surround an anoa, a small type of buffalo, in a 44,000-year-old Indonesian cave mural.

Newly Discovered Indonesian Cave Art May Represent World's Oldest Known Hunting Scene

The finding bolsters the idea that even 44,000 years ago, artistic ingenuity was shaping cultures across the Eurasian continent

An artist's conception of the dust and gas surrounding a newly formed planetary system.

Super-Strong Electric Forces May Have Helped Tiny Clumps of Dust Seed the Planets

Lab experiments with glass beads suggest that, early on, space dust couldn’t help but come together

In 2010, researchers excavating this young woman's grave discovered a waxy cone atop her head.

Ancient Egyptian Head Cones Were Real, Grave Excavations Suggest

Once relegated to wall paintings, the curious headpieces have finally been found in physical form, but archaeologists remain unsure of their purpose

Enceladus' four tiger stripes may have formed during a period of coolness, when the moon's inner sea froze, swelled, and cracked the surface at the south pole.

Swelling, Freezing Seas May Have Given Enceladus Its Tiger Stripes

A combination of an inner ocean, low gravity and thin polar ice may have gifted this Saturnian moon its distinctive feline features

El Quitasol (The Parasol) by Francisco del Goya, digitally doctored into a scene that portrays the consequences of climate change

See Four Spanish Masterpieces Updated to Reflect the Consequences of Climate Change

Timed to coincide with the ongoing U.N. Climate Change Conference, the campaign is a digital effort to warn the world

Reproductive biologist Pei-Chih Lee helped develop a new procedure to dehydrate and preserve samples of cat ovarian tissue without freezing.

Scientists Pumped Ovarian Tissue Full of Sugar and Microwaved It. Here’s Why

Though only tried in cat tissues so far, the technique could someday aid fertility preservation, wildlife conservation and more

Microphones picked up ultrasonic sounds produced when tomato or tobacco plants were cut or dried out.

Plants May Let Out Ultrasonic Squeals When Stressed

Human ears can’t hear them, but other plants or animals might

Bocydium globulare, a treehopper with an unusual, helicopter-like helmet.

Treehoppers’ Bizarre, Wondrous Helmets Use Wing Genes to Grow

The elaborate structures, which are not actually wings, can resemble thorns, leaves, ants and more

The stretcher bullet (mostly intact) and two fragments of the bullet that fatally wounded Kennedy, as seen from multiple perspectives

Bullets That Killed John F. Kennedy Immortalized as Digital Replicas

The originals remain at the National Archives, but new 3-D scans showcase the ballistics in vivid detail

Science thanks you for your service, elephant seal!

Seals With High-Tech Hats Are Collecting Climate Data in the Antarctic

Scientists hooked the animals up with sensors that monitor how heat moves through deep ocean currents

Photographer Charles Marville captured this snapshot of an open-air urinal with three stalls in 1865.

How Paris' Open-Air Urinals Changed a City—and Helped Dismantle the Nazi Regime

During World War II, the stalls served as rendezvous points for French Resistance fighters

The capsule dissolves into a star-shaped device that slowly releases the hormone levonorgestrel over the course of a month.

Once-a-Month Birth Control Pill Seems to Have Worked in Pigs. Are People Next?

Scientists used a device that sits in the stomach and slowly releases hormones into the body

Some soldiers (although not necessarily the ones pictured here) dyed their lighter locks to avoid appearing washed out in photographs.

Archaeologists Find Hair Dye Bottles Used by Self-Conscious Civil War Soldiers Posing for Portraits

Hair-do it for the gram

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