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

    Snakes on the brain

    In a bizarre experiment, researchers delve into the neural roots of courage.

  2. Physics

    Physics in free fall

    Physicists drop supercold atoms down an elevator shaft to see what will happen.

  3. Physics

    Bouncing beads outwit Feynman

    Ratchet-and-pawl thought experiment whirs to life, extracting work from bouncing beads.

  4. Physics

    A giant proposal for a new type of molecule

    Atoms linked across vast distances, can point in two directions at once

  5. Humans

    2010 Kavli Prizes awarded

    The 2010 Kavli laureates in astrophysics, nanoscience and neuroscience are named for work on powerful telescopes, neuron chatter molecules, building structures with DNA and a method for moving individual atoms.

  6. Materials Science

    Quantum photocells might cheat efficiency limits

    Factoring in quantum coherence could increase efficiency of harnessing sunlight in photovoltaic cells.

  7. Health & Medicine

    Tiny blood vessels expel clots by force

    A study in mice uncovers a new way that capillaries keep the flow going.

  8. Life

    Genome from a bottle

    Cells switch species when given synthetic DNA, an advance that could lead to designer organisms.

  9. Humans

    Young scientists and engineers get inspired

    As I walked around the convention center in San Jose, Calif., last week talking with students at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair, I was struck by how many of the projects were inspired by something personal. These young scientists noticed that something was wrong, and then—here’s the best part—they actually tried to fix it.

  10. Life

    Light shows fMRI works as advertised

    Optogenetic method validates assumption underlying brain imaging technique.

  11. Science & Society

    Students win big at Intel ISEF 2010

    Global high school science competition concludes with top prizes going to projects on cancer-fighting quantum dots, quantum computer algorithms and computer programming.

  12. Nobel Laureates dispense science wisdom

    Intel ISEF 2010