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

    Tetris players are not block heads

    Playing the geometry-based computer game can boost the brain’s gray matter.

  2. Health & Medicine

    From three to four chambers

    Scientists identify gene that may shape the heart.

  3. Life

    Mitochondrial DNA replacement successful in Rhesus monkeys

    New procedure may halt some serious inherited diseases, a study suggests.

  4. Life

    Bomb-tastic new worms

    Scientists find previously unknown deep-sea species that launch bioluminescent packets.

  5. Physics

    Casper the Quantum Ghost

    Researchers find that a strange kind of imaging relies on quantum mechanics.

  6. Tech

    Scientists propose lab-grade black holes

    Creating tiny, artificial black holes could help uncover what happens to particles on the edge of full-sized black holes.

  7. Computing

    Minifridge makes quantum computers last

    A new study shows that if ions are kept cool, then the information they hold can be repeatedly manipulated.

  8. Math

    Baseball by the numbers

    A new study evaluates the success of statistical analyses in determining the player with the golden glove.

  9. Math

    Cable boxes identify bargain and lemon commercial slots

    Analysts get a closer look at television viewing habits with second-by-second data.

  10. Life

    Fish feel the flow

    New model explains how fish rely on their lateral lines to read wakes.

  11. Venom hunters

    Scientists probe toxins, revealing the healing powers of biochemical weapons.

  12. Health & Medicine

    Creating fat that burns calories

    Researchers find a way to make energy-using brown fat from skin cells.