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

    Cell phone research suggests fetal risk

    Constant exposure of pregnant mice to devices’ radiation is linked to behavioral and brain abnormalities in offspring.

  2. Health & Medicine

    Retina can help reveal brain health

    Among older women, diseased blood vessels at the back of the eye are linked to lower scores on mental tests and other signs of possible ministrokes.

  3. Old memories interfere with remembering new ones

    Scans in healthy people reveal how the brain juggles outdated versus fresh information.

  4. Life

    Brain cells know which way you’ll bet

    Activity of nerve cells in a key brain structure reveals how people will bet in a card game.

  5. Health & Medicine

    Enriched with Information

    New theory doesn’t limit consciousness to the brain.

  6. Humans

    Harsh conditions in childhood have long-term effects

    Kids from Romanian orphanage also had lower volumes of gray matter.

  7. Health & Medicine

    Sleeplessness agitates the brain

    As fatigue grows, electrical activity mounts.

  8. Health & Medicine

    Just two cells to make memories last

    A pair of neurons in fly's brain is essential to long-term information storage and retrieval.

  9. Consciousness Emerges

    Somewhere along a tangled path, sights, sounds and insights pop into awareness.

  10. Life

    Cancer drug may have Alzheimer’s benefits

    Medication helps the brain clear a plaque-forming protein associated with dementia.

  11. Health & Medicine

    Bird flu leaves tracks in brain

    H5N1 infection might make survivors vulnerable to Parkinson’s or other neurological disorders, a study in mice indicates.

  12. Neuroscience

    Emblems of Awareness

    Brain signatures lead scientists to the seat of consciousness.