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. Animals

    Hummingbirds evolved a strange taste for sugar

    While other birds seem to lack the ability to taste sugar, hummingbirds detect sweetness using a repurposed sensor that normally responds to savory flavors.

  2. Health & Medicine

    Study puts numbers to post-baby sleepiness

    Many moms aren’t getting good sleep months after giving birth, reports a new study and every mother ever.

  3. Health & Medicine

    Data deluge feeds paranoia parenting

    There are several gadgets and devices you can buy that will feed you reams of data about your baby. But it’s not always clear how that data translate into useful information.

  4. Neuroscience

    Prosthesis uses swinging arms to tell legs when to step

    Device creates artificial neural connection that could help paralyzed people walk.

  5. Neuroscience

    Busy neurons don’t always draw blood

    Study of mice suggests caution in inferring the activity of the brain’s neurons from functional MRI results.

  6. Neuroscience

    Music soothes the aging brain in film ‘Alive Inside’

    A social worker highlighted in a new documentary goes on a quest to bring tunes to nursing homes.

  7. Health & Medicine

    Rat moms’ behavior reflected in their babies’ brains

    Grooming, nursing and other maternal behaviors cause brain signal changes in offspring, a study in rats finds.

  8. Health & Medicine

    Seven facts and a mystery about hand, foot and mouth disease

    Hand, foot and mouth disease is a viral illness that most kids get before age 5. Several different viruses cause the condition, which causes blisters and fevers.

  9. Neuroscience

    Part of brain’s pleasure network curbed in mice with chronic pain

    Part of brain’s pleasure network is muffled in mice with chronic paw injuries, a new study finds.

  10. Neuroscience

    Hippocampus may help homing pigeons explore

    When researchers remove pigeons’ hippocampi, birds fly straighter on early parts of journey home.

  11. Health & Medicine

    Long-term Parkinson’s treatment sheds bad rep

    Prolonged used of levodopa doesn’t increase the severity of side effects from the Parkinson’s drug, new research shows.

  12. Health & Medicine

    Babies’ brains practice words long before they can speak

    When listening to speech, babies’ brains are active in motor areas required for moving the mouth and tongue in ways that produce words.