Christine Herman


Side effects public media

Christine Herman is a Ph.D. chemist turned audio journalist. Her reporting has received awards from the Illinois Associated Press Broadcasters Association and has aired on national programs including All Things Considered and Here & Now. Christine is a mother of three and aspiring aerial artist. She’s a recipient of the 2018-2019 Rosalynn Carter Fellowships for Mental Health Journalism and has been working at Illinois Public Media since 2015.

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Research image of mouse and human Purkinje cells.

Purkinje cells evolved to have increasingly complex architecture

An increasing proportion of the cerebellar neurons acquired multiple primary dendrites in humans and other apes, according to a comparison of 11 primate species.

By Siddhant Pusdekar
16 July 2026 | 5 min read
Research image of mouse brain.

Making waves: Sleep-like brain activity in awake mice lowers sleep need, boosts memory

Alternating on/off firing patterns don’t just characterize deep, slow-wave sleep, they drive some of its restorative benefits, new findings suggest.

By Alissa de Chassey
16 July 2026 | 4 min read

Is our intelligence rooted in how living organisms are organized?

Kathryn Nave explains how a concept called constraint closure may be fundamental to understanding brains, minds and cognition.

By Paul Middlebrooks
15 July 2026 | 1 min read