George Musser

Contributing writer

George Musser is an award-winning science writer and editor. He was a senior editor at Scientific American for 15 years and has written two books on fundamental physics, “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to String Theory” (2008) and “Spooky Action at a Distance” (2015). He has written for Science, Nature, Quanta, Aeon, Nautilus, The New York Times and other publications. His website is georgemusser.com. He tweets at @gmusser.

From this contributor

Illustration of a series of squares containing distinct patterns.
Neural networks Microphone

Can an emerging field called ‘neural systems understanding’ explain the brain?

By George Musser
5 June 2024 | 21 min listen
Hands touching, showing nerves highlighted in different parts of the hand.
Spectrum

How ‘social touch’ shapes autism traits

By George Musser
29 May 2019 | 17 min read
Illustration shows the world is distorted through a point of view pair of glasses
Spectrum Microphone

The predictive coding theory of autism, explained

By George Musser
1 May 2019 | 6 min read
A woman stands at an ATM in a mall scene, looking at a camera
Spectrum

How virtual reality is transforming autism studies

By George Musser
24 October 2018 | 20 min read
An picture to illustrate a ‘predictive coding’ theory of autism suggests that many of the condition’s hallmark traits occur when sensory input overrides expectation in the brain.
Spectrum

How autism may stem from problems with prediction

By George Musser
7 March 2018 | 19 min read

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Memory astrocytes.
Null and noteworthy

Null and Noteworthy: Reanalysis contradicts report of immune memory in astrocytes

The analysis, which has not yet been peer reviewed, attributes the finding to misidentified immune cells instead.

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30 April 2025 | 5 min read
Research image of neural progenitor cells.
Spectrum

Documenting decades of autism prevalence; and more

Here is a roundup of autism-related news and research spotted around the web for the week of 28 April.

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29 April 2025 | 1 min read