Portfolio | Amanda Womac | Freelance Science Writer

Vanishing bees pose big threat to economy

Dave Hackenberg, a beekeeper in Florida, discovered 400 of his over 2,000 beehives had been abandoned during the winter. It wasn’t that the bees were dead and their bodies ...Read More

Homeowners can do their part for bee health

Honeybee decline is on the rise, but there’s something Tennesseans can do about it, right in their own back (or front) yards. According to the USDA, roughly 42 percent of ...Read More

Queens, workers, drones: Types of bees and what they do

For honeybees, it’s all about the queen, and long may she reign. Honeybee colonies have three types of bees: queens, workers and drones. All the bees in the colony are ...Read More

Keeper continues lifelong fascination with all things bees

Joel White’s fascination with bees began in 1975 when one of his college coaches took him out to some apiaries to show him around. He was hooked, and kept his own bees for ...Read More

Bear, tourist interactions change over years

Perhaps the most iconic symbol of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, the black bear, or Ursus americanus. A chance to see a bear is one of the primary reasons people ...Read More

Short history of the nation’s most-visited national park

In 1899, the Appalachian National Park Association began discussing the concept for a 12,000-square-mile park in parts of North and South Carolina, Georgia, Virginia and ...Read More

Cassius Cash’s unlikely path from Memphis to Great Smoky Mountains superintendent

It all started on whim. Cassius Cash was on his way to band practice at the University of Arkansas when he decided to practice his interview skills instead. “Someone ...Read More

Examination Station

It started with an innocent sneeze in homeroom. By second period, the normally energetic seventh-grader was feeling a bit feverish. Now, as she shuffles into the lunchroom, ...Read More

Century of Cities

In his landmark 1984 book Biophilia, acclaimed biologist Edward O. Wilson defined the term biophilia as “the urge humans have to affiliate with other forms of life.” ...Read More

Women in STEM is no recent phenomenon

One of the challenges facing women in STEM disciplines is the lack of role models girls have when it comes to female mentors in science, engineering, technology and math. ...Read More