Laura Sanders

Laura Sanders

Senior Writer, Neuroscience

Laura Sanders reports on neuroscience for Science News. She wrote Growth Curve, a blog about the science of raising kids, from 2013 to 2019 and continues to write about child development and parenting from time to time. She earned her Ph.D. in molecular biology from the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, where she studied the nerve cells that compel a fruit fly to perform a dazzling mating dance. Convinced that she was missing some exciting science somewhere, Laura turned her eye toward writing about brains in all shapes and forms. She holds undergraduate degrees in creative writing and biology from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, where she was a National Merit Scholar. Growth Curve, her 2012 series on consciousness and her 2013 article on the dearth of psychiatric drugs have received awards recognizing editorial excellence.

All Stories by Laura Sanders

  1. Neuroscience

    Anxiety in monkeys is linked to hereditary brain traits

    A key brain connection may be behind childhood anxiety, brain scans of monkeys suggest.

  2. Health & Medicine

    40 years after the first IVF baby, a look back at the birth of a new era

    Like many scientific breakthroughs, IVF took persistence and luck in the lab.

  3. Neuroscience

    Pregnancy depression is on the rise, a survey suggests

    Women today may be at greater risk of depression during pregnancy than previous generations.

  4. Neuroscience

    Vaginal microbes in mice transfer stress to their pups

    During birth, microbes from a stressed mouse mother can carry some aspects of stress to her offspring.

  5. Health & Medicine

    No matter their size, newborn stomachs need frequent filling

    Studies on newborn stomach size help explain why the tiny humans need to eat so frequently.

  6. Neuroscience

    Nerve cells that help control hunger have been ID’d in mice

    A mysterious bump on the human brain may be able to dial appetite up or down.

  7. Neuroscience

    Watch the brain jiggle with each heartbeat

    A new twist on MRI can reveal how the brain wiggles.

  8. Neuroscience

    Splitting families may end, but migrant kids’ trauma needs to be studied

    The long-term effects of separating children from their parents at the U.S. border need to be studied, scientists say.

  9. Genetics

    Guidelines call for limits to whole genome testing for fetuses

    Powerful tests offer unprecedented detail about fetal genomes. But whole-genome tests aren’t ready for widespread use yet, doctors caution.

  10. Health & Medicine

    Should you bank your baby’s umbilical cord blood? Here’s a guide for thinking through the issue.

    The professionals have advice to give, but the decision is ultimately a personal one.

  11. Health & Medicine

    When deciding whether to bank your baby’s umbilical cord blood, consider these caveats

    Despite all the excitement, the cells found in cord blood may not be as useful as advertised.

  12. Health & Medicine

    Opioids kill. Here’s how an overdose shuts down your body

    Powerful opioids affect many parts of the body, but the drugs’ most deadly effects are on breathing.