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

    Baby’s first bacteria arrive sooner than we thought

    Forget what you’ve heard. The womb is most definitely not sterile.

  2. Neuroscience

    Life span lengthens when mice feel less pain

    When rodents are missing a sensory protein, their metabolism revs up and they live longer.

  3. Health & Medicine

    Study on pregnant women’s driving has some potholes

    New study finds that pregnancy makes women get into more car accidents, but there could be a simpler explanation.

  4. Health & Medicine

    Mom’s nutrition puts a stamp on baby’s DNA

    A new study is the latest in a growing list of how the environment sculpts a person’s epigenome.

  5. Neuroscience

    Young blood proven good for old brain

    Blood — or one of its protein components — restores some of youth’s vibrancy to elderly mouse brains.

  6. Neuroscience

    Young rats that use their brain keep more cells alive

    Learning a task helps just-born cells survive in a learning and memory center of the rat brain.

  7. Science & Society

    Students retain information better with pens than laptops

    Compared with typing on a laptop, writing notes by hand may lead to deeper understanding of lecture material.

  8. Health & Medicine

    Induced labor doesn’t necessarily kick off cascade of interventions

    A large analysis of clinical trials finds that jump-starting labor actually leads to fewer C-sections, a finding that runs contrary to common birthing wisdom.

  9. Neuroscience

    Pain curbs sex drive in females, but not males

    When in pain, female mice’s interest in sex takes a hit but males still want to mate.

  10. Health & Medicine

    Babies cry at night to prevent siblings, scientist suggests

    Babies who demand to be breastfed in the night might be delaying the birth of a sibling, scientist proposes.

  11. Neuroscience

    Poor slumber is bad for young flies’ brains

    A child's sleep deprivation could alter brain development and adult behavior, a study of fruit flies suggests.

  12. Health & Medicine

    What’s going on in the mind of a Skyping baby?

    By studying how young children respond to video calls, scientists hope to understand the role of new technology.