Betsy is a freelance science journalist based in the San Francisco Bay Area. She previously worked at WIRED as senior editor in charge of science coverage for the website and as the science reporter for the Contra Costa Times. She was a Knight Science Journalism Fellow at MIT and an Alicia Patterson Foundation Fellow.

Betsy is coauthor with Greg Miller of a book about maps, mapmakers, and cartography, All Over the Map: A Cartographic Odyssey (National Geographic 2018). She is secretary of the board of the Council for the Advancement of Science Writing and an editorial consultant for the MIT Environmental Solutions Initiative’s Journalism Fellowship.

Betsy has covered everything from particle physics to mental maps. Her work has appeared in numerous publications including Science, National Geographic, Scientific American, and The New York Times. Her current reporting obsession is animal behavior and cognition and our relationship with other animals. Find more of her writing at betsymason.com.