Laura Sanders

Neuroscience, Senior Writer, Science News

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. Animals

    Tiny treadmills reveal how fruit flies sprint

    Forcing fruit flies to move shows how the insects coordinate their steps. This holds clues to other animals’ brains and movement.

  2. Animals

    Reindeer can chew food in their sleep

    Brain waves and behaviors suggest that reindeer can doze while chewing.

  3. Animals

    Like tiny Jedis, rats can move digital objects with their brains

    Rats imagined their way through a 3-D virtual world in a new study. The results hint at how brains think about places they aren’t physically in.

  4. Brain

    Brain scans hint at how well teens will manage pandemic stress

    A study that followed hundreds of teens during the COVID-19 pandemic now suggests why some of them handled long-term stress better than others.

  5. Brain

    Neuroscientists use brain scans to decode people’s thoughts

    The research may lead to new devices for people who can’t communicate easily. It also raises privacy concerns.

  6. Brain

    Why teens can’t help tuning out mom’s voice 

     Teens often tune out what their mom is saying. Normal brain changes during adolescence could explain why, new research shows.

  7. Brain

    Nodding off may turn your creativity on

    In an experiment, people who fell into a shallow sleep were more likely than non-sleepers or deep sleepers to discover a sly math trick.

  8. Health & Medicine

    Kids lost more than learning when COVID closed their schools

    The first 18 months of the pandemic has already taken a hefty academic and emotional toll on students, new research shows.

  9. Science & Society

    New technology can get inside your head. Are you ready?

    New technologies aim to listen to — and maybe even change — your brain activity. But just because scientists can do this, should they?

  10. Science & Society

    People are concerned about tech tinkering with our minds

    It’s not science fiction: Science can already eavesdrop on and influence our thoughts. Here’s what our readers think about it.

  11. Animals

    Mice show their feelings on their faces

    Pleasure, pain, fear and disgust — all can show on a mouse’s face. As computational analyses show, you just need to know what to look for.

  12. Science & Society

    Brainwaves of people with coarse, curly hair are now less hard to read

    Electrodes weren’t designed for people with coarse, curly hair. A redesign was needed, scientists say.