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
By
Elizabeth Svoboda, Undark
14 November 2018 | 6 min read
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Fiona Sanderson, a senior program manager at the Brain Canada Foundation, shares how she got into grant administration and how she helps connect researchers with funding and one another.
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This paper changed my life: A first glimpse into the ‘middle’ of brain processing
Work by Jeffrey Moran and Robert Desimone showed that monkeys could focus their attention on different stimuli in their visual field without shifting their gaze. Their work marked a key milestone in the emergence of cognitive neuroscience.
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