Katie Hunt

Writer and editor, CNN Digital

Katie Hunt writes about science for CNN Digital based in London. She was previously a senior digital producer in Hong Kong, where she led coverage of China.
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Katie Hunt

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Holotype of Sirenobethylus charybdis
Qiong Wu
Bizarre creature preserved in 99 million-year-old amber was ‘beyond imagination,’ scientists say
Mar 27, 2025
A parasitic wasp that flew among dinosaurs had a Venus flytrap-like contraption on its abdomen that likely allowed it to inject eggs into insects it entrapped.
Ethernal-Literature-fake-fossil-colour-copy.jpg
Sarah Gabbott
These discarded objects will form humanity’s lasting geological footprint, paleontologists say
Mar 26, 2025
Manufactured objects will form distinctive, if sometimes hard to interpret, clues to human existence, paleontologist authors Sarah Gabbott and Jan Zalasiewicz say.
Duonychus Hand reconstruction
Masoto Hattori
Largest fully preserved dinosaur claw unearthed in Mongolia’s Gobi Desert
Mar 25, 2025
Paleontologists unearthed the fossil in Mongolia’s Gobi Desert, and the find is unique because of a sheath preserved on one of the digits, which reveals the claw’s true length.
This is a Hubble Space Telescope composite image of a supernova explosion designated SN 2014J in the galaxy M82. At a distance of approximately 11.5 million light-years from Earth it is the closest supernova of its type discovered in the past few decades. The explosion is categorized as a Type Ia supernova, which is theorized to be triggered in binary systems consisting of a white dwarf and another star — which could be a second white dwarf, a star like our sun, or a giant star.
NASA Goddard
Supernovas may have played a role in two of Earth’s largest mass extinctions, study suggests
Mar 20, 2025
New research suggests the violent explosions of dying stars may have caused two of Earth’s biggest mass extinctions millions of years ago.
1,-entrance-to-Camp-Century-copy.jpg
Robert M. Weiss
A doctor was deployed to an Arctic research station during the Cold War. Decades later, he learned its secret purpose
Mar 15, 2025
The “city under the ice” revealed a hidden chapter of the Cold War era and gave rise to a new field of scientific inquiry. As ice melt accelerates, its story isn’t over yet.
2RFRBD1 Gustav Klimt, Tree of Life (Stoclet House Frieze),Triptych, abstract painting in mixed media, 1910-1911
incamerastock/Alamy Stock Photo
Trees in art, as well as life, often follow simple mathematical rules, study finds
Mar 14, 2025
Scientists have studied trees depicted in various works of art and found they contain fractals, following relatively simple mathematical rules also found in branching patterns in nature.
This previously unknown species of sea star thrives in the extreme conditions of the<br />Jøtul Hydrothermal Vent Field in the Arctic.
Martin Hartley/The Nippon Foundation-Nekton Ocean Census
Ambitious effort to document marine life reveals 866 new species and counting
Mar 13, 2025
Over a 16-month period, divers, underwater submersibles and remotely operated vehicles found 886 marine species that have all been deemed new to science.
Original fossil (ATE7-1) of the midface of a hominin assigned to Homo aff. erectus recovered at level TE7 of the Sima del Elefante (Sierra de Atapuerca, Burgos).
Maria D. Guillén/IPHES-CERCA
Cave discovery reveals previously unknown prehistoric human population in Europe
Mar 12, 2025
Fragments of a partial skull unearthed in a cave in northern Spain have revealed a previously unknown population of ancient humans, according to new research.
Genetically engineered mouse with woolly fur is a step toward resurrecting extinct mammoth, company says
Colossal Biosciences
Scientists created a ‘woolly mouse’ with mammoth traits. Is it a step toward bringing back the extinct giant?
Mar 5, 2025
Scientists working to bring back the woolly mammoth have created genetically engineered mice that they say have several features of the extinct ice age giant.
A fragment of the organic glass found inside the skull of the deceased individual in Herculaneum.
Pier Paolo Petrone
A young man’s brain turned to glass during the eruption of Mount Vesuvius. Scientists say they have figured out how
Feb 27, 2025
The eruption of Mount Vesuvius 2,000 years ago turned a victim’s brain tissue into glass. Scientists say they have figured out how this unusual phenomenon occurred.
C6WA73 Black tip shark
Dray van Beeck/Alamy Stock Photo
Shark attacks declined sharply in 2024. It’s not clear why
Feb 11, 2025
Unprovoked attacks by sharks declined sharply in 2024, according to new figures from an international database compiled by the Florida Museum of Natural History.
Voyager 1 at Jupiter - Red spot Image taken on March 5, 1979 This image was re-processed on November 6, 1998 and re-recorded to film on the MDA film recorder, MRPS ID# 93779, from which this file was scanned. Original vidicon image size is 800 lines with 800 pixels per line.
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Scientists make ‘rare advance’ in tackling the oldest unsolved problem in physics
Feb 6, 2025
Physicists have long tried to model the chaotic phenomenon of turbulence. Now, a team has pioneered a new quantum computing-inspired approach.
PHerc.172, showing the word disgust
Vesuvius Challenge
‘Disgust’ among first words decoded in 2,000-year-old charred scroll
Feb 6, 2025
Scholars are studying an ancient scroll that has been virtually unrolled 2,000 years after it was burned to a crisp during the eruption of Italy’s Mount Vesuvius.
Vegavis-Landscape-©-Witton-2025.jpg
Winton 2025
Fossil of oldest known modern bird discovered in Antarctica
Feb 5, 2025
A 68-million-year-old skull fossil found in Antarctica has revealed the oldest known modern bird, which was likely related to the waterfowl that live by lakes and oceans today, according to new research.
Tim McCoy, Research Geologist and Curator of Meteorites, and Rob Wardell, Museum Specialist, from the Department of Mineral Sciences at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C., place a sample of the asteroid Bennu into a Thermo Fisher FEI Quattro Analytical Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) for analysis. SEM analysis will provide information on the physical characteristics and molecular composition of the asteroid sample. This sample was collected by NASA's OSIRIS-Rex (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification and Security-Regolith Explorer) mission in 2020 and returned to Earth in September 2021, where it has undergone intensive study. Because of Bennu's rare carbon-rich composition and its dating to the formation of the solar system over 4.5 billion years ago, Smithsonian scientists believe analysis of this sample will provide insights into how water and organic molecules first reached Earth, a core research focus of the National Museum of Natural History's initiative, Our Unique Planet.
James Di Loreto/Smithsonian
Life’s building blocks discovered in asteroid dust
Feb 1, 2025
This week, explore what lurks in asteroid dust, marvel at the world’s largest beaded burial, discover an elusive creature photographed for the first time, and more.
Figura-3_C.jpg
Courtesy Research Group ATLAS/University of Sevilla
Buried in more than 270,000 beads, grave reveals women’s power 5,000 years ago
Jan 29, 2025
Women buried in a lavish grave 5,000 years ago wore beaded garments, suggesting they held positions of power. The beads could have taken 10 people seven months to make.

About

Since 2020, Katie has covered the latest scientific discoveries and advances for CNN in London and coauthors CNN’s Wonder Theory science newsletter. She was selected as a 2023 Logan science journalism fellow at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Massachusetts and took part in the Metcalf Institute science journalism fellowship in 2024 at the University of Rhode Island. Prior to this, she worked in Hong Kong for seven years, coordinating CNN’s digital coverage of China. She has also worked for Reuters and the BBC. She has a BA in Modern Chinese Studies from the University of Leeds and MSc from the London School of Economics.