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

    The fight against gonorrhea gets a potential new weapon: a vaccine

    A vaccine used in New Zealand to curb meningitis also appeared to drop gonorrhea infections, results that hint at a way to make a gonorrhea vaccine.

  2. Health & Medicine

    Here’s how a child sees a Van Gogh painting

    Children’s eyes are drawn to vivid, bright and bold parts of Van Gogh paintings. But they can shift their viewing strategies with a little prompting, a new study suggests.

  3. Health & Medicine

    When should babies sleep in their own rooms?

    A new study offers support to sleep-starved parents by suggesting that babies age 6 months and older sleep longer when in their own bedroom.

  4. Health & Medicine

    A baby’s DNA may kick off mom’s preeclampsia

    A large genetic analysis points to a protein made by the fetus that may trigger preeclampsia in the mom.

  5. Health & Medicine

    It’s best if babies don’t drink their fruit as juice

    New guidelines from the American Academy of Pediatrics recommend no fruit juice for babies younger than 1 year old.

  6. Health & Medicine

    Babies categorize colors the same way adults do

    Babies divide hues into five categories, much like adults, a result that suggests color categorization is built into the brain.

  7. Neuroscience

    Obscure brain region linked to feeding frenzy in mice

    Nerve cells in a little-studied part of the brain exert a powerful effect on eating, a mouse study suggests.

  8. Health & Medicine

    Drugs for reflux disease in infants may come with unintended consequences

    Infants prescribed proton-pump inhibitors for reflux disease may be at higher risk for broken bones later on.

  9. Health & Medicine

    40 more ‘intelligence’ genes found

    A study of nearly 80,000 people turns up 40 genes that may have a role in making brains smarter.

  10. Health & Medicine

    Toddlers’ screen time linked to speech delays and lost sleep, but questions remain

    Two new studies link handheld screen time for young children to less sleep and greater risk of expressive language delays. But the results are preliminary.

  11. Neuroscience

    A baby’s pain registers in the brain

    EEG recordings can help indicate whether a newborn baby is in pain, a preliminary study suggests.

  12. Health & Medicine

    Long naps lead to less night sleep for toddlers

    Daytime naps can steal sleep from the night, a small study of toddlers suggests.