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. Health & Medicine

    From day one, a frog’s developing brain is calling the shots

    Frog brains help organize muscle and nerve patterns early in development.

  2. Health & Medicine

    Telling children they’re smart could tempt them to cheat

    Kids who were praised for being smart were more likely to cheat, two studies suggest.

  3. Health & Medicine

    Help for postpartum mood disorders can be hard to come by

    A new survey suggests that many postpartum women who suffer from depression, anxiety and other mood disorders don’t get the help they need.

  4. Health & Medicine

    Sugars in breast milk may fight harmful bacteria directly

    A small study finds that the sugars present in some women’s breast milk may fight potentially harmful bacteria.

  5. Neuroscience

    Brain chemical lost in Parkinson’s may contribute to its own demise

    A dangerous form of the chemical messenger dopamine causes cellular mayhem in the very nerve cells that make it.

  6. Neuroscience

    Learning takes brain acrobatics

    Brains that learn best seem able to reconfigure themselves on the fly, a new line of research suggests.

  7. Health & Medicine

    Seeing one picture at a time helps kids learn words from books

    A small study found that children were better able to pick up vocabulary from books that show only one picture at a time.

  8. Health & Medicine

    Protect little ones’ eyes from the sun during the eclipse

    Pay attention to eye safety for kids during the solar eclipse.

  9. Health & Medicine

    When kids imitate others, they’re just being human

    In imitation tests, kids readily performed nonsensical actions, but bonobos didn’t. The results hint that excessive imitation may be a uniquely human trait.

  10. Neuroscience

    Mice with a mutation linked to autism affect their littermates’ behavior

    Genetically normal littermates of mutated mice behave strangely, suggesting that the social environment plays a big role in behavior.

  11. Health & Medicine

    Newborn baby’s infection offers a cautionary tale about placenta pills

    A newborn came down with a dangerous bacterial infection. The culprit, scientists suspect, was contaminated placenta pills eaten by the mother.

  12. Health & Medicine

    Baby-led weaning won’t necessarily ward off extra weight

    Babies allowed to feed themselves gained similar amounts of weight as babies spoon-fed by caretakers.