Sarah Zielinski

Managing editor, Science News for Students

Sarah Zielinski is a science writer and editor with more than a decade of experience covering a wide breadth of science, from astronomy to zoology. A former editor at Smithsonian magazine, she has been published in Scientific American, Discover, National Geographic News, Science and Slate. She received the DCSWA 2010 Science News Brief Award, and an honorable mention in 2017. She has a B.A. in biological sciences from Cornell University and an M.A. in journalism through New York University’s Science, Health and Environmental Reporting Program. She has two cats, Oscar and Saffir.

All Stories by Sarah Zielinski

  1. Ecosystems

    Photographing wildflowers and other ways you can help fight climate change

    Citizen scientists can help with climate and conservation research by counting birds, taking pictures of flowers and deciphering old weather records.

  2. Animals

    To monitor penguin diet from satellites, look to poop

    Scientists have figured out what foods dominate an Adélie penguin colony’s diet by looking at Landsat imagery. But to do so, they had to start with penguin poop.

  3. Tech

    MythBusters Jr. puts kids in charge of testing myths — for science

    Six young makers and scientists become official MythBusters in this new Science Channel series.

  4. Animals

    How Hannibal the cannibal led to a discovery about cobra diet

    How a snake named Hannibal led to a discovery about cobra cannibalism

  5. Animals

    This penguin prey knows how to fight back

    Scientists attached cameras to gentoo penguins off the Falkland Islands. The video revealed that their tiny prey can sometimes win in a fight.

  6. Science & Society

    Climate change sets people on the move

    As their homelands experience uncomfortable changes to weather, many people have begun migrating to places with a better climate.

  7. Earth

    Explainer: Where fossil fuels come from

    Despite one oil company famously using an Apatosaurus as its logo, oil, gas and coal don’t come from dinosaurs. They do, however, come from a long time ago.

  8. Chemistry

    Explainer: CO2 and other greenhouse gases

    Carbon dioxide is just one of several chemicals that contribute to the greenhouse effect. Nitrous oxide, methane and CFCs are other big contributors.

  9. Climate

    Analyze This: How hot will it get?

    Temperatures are rising because of human-caused climate change. But some places with get hot faster than others.

  10. Earth

    Nine big stories you may have missed this summer

    We hope you enjoyed time off from school this summer. But you may have missed some scientific developments, from mega-eruptions to Martian lakes.

  11. Genetics

    Toxic toads pose threat to Madagascar’s predators

    The Asian common toad, an invasive species in Madagascar, produces a chemical in its skin that’s probably toxic to most of the island’s predators.

  12. Animals

    Deep-sea expedition led researchers to doomed octopus nursery

    The ill-fated octopods may be a sign that a healthy population is hiding nearby.