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

    Wrinkled brain mimics crumpled paper

    Brains crumple up just like wads of paper, a new study suggests.

  2. Neuroscience

    Old fruit flies’ swagger restored with brain chemical dopamine

    Replenishing the chemical communicator dopamine to a handful of nerve cells makes old flies feel frisky again.

  3. Neuroscience

    Pain may come in his and hers

    Males and females rely on different kinds of cells to carry pain signals, a mouse study suggests.

  4. Health & Medicine

    Should you eat your baby’s placenta?

    More women are choosing to eat their baby’s placenta after giving birth, but the evidence for benefits isn’t there yet.

  5. Neuroscience

    One path that fear takes in the brain discovered

    By hijacking a newly discovered pathway in mice’s brains, scientists inspire fear.

  6. Neuroscience

    Brain’s adult stem cells born early

    By tracing the lineages of adult stem cells in the mouse brain, scientists get a view of the cells’ early lives.

  7. Neuroscience

    Homunculus reimagined

    A new study pinpoints the part of the brain that controls the neck muscles, tweaking the motor homunculus.

  8. Neuroscience

    Homunculus reimagined

    A new study pinpoints the part of the brain that controls the neck muscles, tweaking the motor homunculus.

  9. Neuroscience

    Alzheimer’s spares brain’s music regions

    Brain regions involved in recognizing familiar songs are relatively unscathed in Alzheimer’s disease.

  10. Neuroscience

    Female’s nose blocks scent of a male

    When a female mouse is in an infertile stage of her reproductive cycle, her nose cells don’t alert her brain to the presence of a potential mate.

  11. Health & Medicine

    Why breast-feeding really can be easier the second time around

    The body remembers how to make milk, a mouse study suggests. Something similar may happen in humans.

  12. Neuroscience

    Cerebellum may be site of creative spark

    Brain scan experiment hints that cerebellum might have a hand in getting creative juices flowing.