![Laura Sanders](https://i0.wp.com/www.sciencenews.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/l_Sanders.jpg?resize=214%2C214&ssl=1)
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.
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All Stories by Laura Sanders
- Earth
Tsunami triggered by one-two punch
Geologists report the first recorded observation of an unusual earthquake sequence.
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- Chemistry
Superconductors go fractal
Oxygen atoms arrange themselves in a self-similar pattern to help conduct electricity without resistance.
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- Physics
Blog: Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle still certain
Despite rumors to the contrary, a mainstay of quantum physics is just as (un)certain as ever.
- Health & Medicine
Violent dreams may predict illness in advance
A sleep disorder can precede neurodegenerative disease by decades.
- Psychology
Sadness response strengthens with age
Older people reacted more strongly to sad scenes than twentysomethings did in a recent study of emotional receptivity.
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- Chemistry
Different strokes
Though they share the same design, new micromachines are not a synchronized swimming team.
- Health & Medicine
Proteins last longer in the brain
A study in mice could lead to a better understanding of aging, Alzheimer’s and other degenerative processes.