I make a living convincing editors to let me write about stuff I think is cool or thought-provoking. The subjects I’ve covered, limited only by my editors’ skepticism, include dinosaur track-based detective work, creationist biology classes in Galapagos schools, and the connections between suffering and selflessness.

Elizabeth Svoboda
From this contributor
Mapping the futures of autistic children
Researchers can roughly project what autistic children's lives will look like years down the road. But how good is their crystal ball — and what are its benefits?
Ben Barres: A transgender scientist shares his story
Ben Barres agonized over whether to come out as male or commit suicide. In a posthumous memoir, he makes clear that coming out was the right choice.

Ben Barres: A transgender scientist shares his story
Explore more from The Transmitter
Beyond Newtonian causation in neuroscience: Embracing complex causality
The traditional mechanistic framework must give way to a richer understanding of how brains actually generate behavior over time.

Beyond Newtonian causation in neuroscience: Embracing complex causality
The traditional mechanistic framework must give way to a richer understanding of how brains actually generate behavior over time.
Robots marry natural neuroscience, experimental control to probe animal interactions
Faux fish and birds are helping researchers decipher some of the rules that govern schooling and squawking, among other social behaviors.

Robots marry natural neuroscience, experimental control to probe animal interactions
Faux fish and birds are helping researchers decipher some of the rules that govern schooling and squawking, among other social behaviors.
Long-read sequencing unearths overlooked autism-linked variants
Strips that are thousands of base pairs in length offer better resolution of structural variants and tandem repeats, according to two independent preprints.

Long-read sequencing unearths overlooked autism-linked variants
Strips that are thousands of base pairs in length offer better resolution of structural variants and tandem repeats, according to two independent preprints.