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
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Science & Society
Intel International Science and Engineering Fair begins
Young scientists converge in San Jose, Calif., where they will compete for over $4 million in scholarships and prizes.
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Space
Asteroid-bound: Scientists look for worthy rock
Scientists consider how to pick a prime asteroid for human exploration
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Health & Medicine
Genetic switch makes old mice forgetful
Reversing a chemical change restored the animals’ memory-making ability.
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Space
Measuring the weakest of forces
Precise measurements could be used to map tiny fluctuations in the surface properties of materials.
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Earth
Severe weather has favorite spots
New analyses of tornadoes and lightning highlight U.S. danger zones.
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Health & Medicine
Why a rotten tooth is hard to find
The brain can’t distinguish some kinds of pain coming from top versus bottom teeth.
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Health & Medicine
Mapping the fruit fly brain
A new digital atlas could reveal how 100,000 neurons work together.
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Humans
Copycats prevail in computerized survival game
A virtual contest suggests that imitation beats innovation in the natural world.
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Health & Medicine
Putting African sleeping sickness to bed
Experiments in mice find a protein that could lead to a safer and more effective treatment for parasitic disease.
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Physics
LHC revs up
The world’s most powerful atom smasher achieves its most energetic collisions yet.
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Health & Medicine
Junk food junkies, round two
Laura Sanders follows up on a story first reported from the Society for Neuroscience’s 2009 meeting.