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. Genetics

    Some genes like it hot

    Some regional DNA differences may be due to climate, global surveys suggest.

  2. Life

    How cuts can spur tumor growth

    Cancerous cells flock to wounds, a study in mice finds.

  3. Life

    Small part of brain itching for a fight

    A cluster of cells compels aggressive behavior in mice.

  4. Life

    Aerobic exercise boosts memory

    Regular walking improved seniors' recall and reversed declines in the size of a brain structure important for remembering.

  5. Health & Medicine

    Prosthetics that feel

    Re-creating a 'sense of touch' for prosthetic limbs may someday improve how people use them.

  6. Humans

    Intel Science Talent Search picks top 40

    High school researchers to present original work in Washington, D.C.

  7. Chemistry

    Why olive oil’s quality is in the cough

    An anti-inflammatory compound found in the best presses tickles taste sensors in the throat, a study finds.

  8. Life

    Making a worm do more than squirm

    A laser used for locomotion control shines light on nematode behavior, one cell at a time.

  9. Health & Medicine

    How the brain shops

    Using implanted electrodes, researchers find individual neurons associated with attaching value to objects.

  10. Life

    Neandertal relative bred with humans

    Known only through DNA extracted from a scrap of bone, a Siberian hominid group suggests a much more complicated prehistory for Homo sapiens.

  11. Health & Medicine

    No fear

    A woman who lacks a basic brain structure, the amygdala, couldn’t be frightened no matter how hard researchers tried. And they tried.

  12. Health & Medicine

    Salvia says high

    Laboratory researchers show that the psychoactive substance in a popular, largely legal recreational drug causes a short but intense period of hallucination.