Headshot of Jill Adams.

Jill Adams

Contributing writer

Jill U. Adams is a freelance science journalist based in Albany, New York. She covers health, mental health and biomedical research for such publications as The Transmitter, The Washington Post, Scientific American, Undark and The Scientist. She has a Ph.D. in pharmacology from Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia.

From this contributor

Research image of astrocytes in a mouse brain.
Spectrum

Alzheimer’s disease and autism; and more

By Jill Adams
13 January 2026 | 2 min read
Illustration of an open journal featuring lines of text and small illustrations of eyes and mouths.
Spectrum

Profiles of neurodevelopmental conditions; and more

By Jill Adams
6 January 2026 | 1 min read
Neurons in cerebral organoids containing a MECP2 variant (right panel) have smaller cell bodies and fewer branches than those in wildtype organoids (left panel).
Spectrum

Autism in Kenya, organoid research, and more

By Jill Adams
23 December 2025 | 2 min read
Illustration of an open journal featuring lines of text and small illustrations of eyes and mouths.
Spectrum

Glutamate receptors, mRNA transcripts and SYNGAP1; and more

By Jill Adams
16 December 2025 | 2 min read
Research image of variants of the ATPase subunit PSMC5/RPT6.
Spectrum

Insights on suicidality and autism; and more

By Jill Adams
9 December 2025 | 2 min read

Explore more from The Transmitter

A network of connected dots of light hovers inside a translucent human head, with figures in lab coats pointing to it from the foreground.
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Computational psychiatry needs systems neuroscience

Dissecting different parallel processing streams may help us understand the mechanisms underlying psychiatric symptoms, such as delusions, and unite human and animal research.

By Michael Halassa
13 January 2026 | 7 min read
Illustration of ants marching back to an anthill.
This paper changed my life Microphone

This paper changed my life: John Tuthill reflects on the subjectivity of selfhood

Wittlinger, Wehner and Wolf’s 2006 “stilts and stumps” Science paper revealed how ants pull off extraordinary feats of navigation using a biological odometer, and it inspired Tuthill to consider how other insects sense their own bodies.

By John Tuthill
12 January 2026 | 7 min read
Rhesus macaque monkey makes an intimidating face.
Emotion processing Microphone

Some facial expressions are less reflexive than previously thought

A countenance such as a grimace activates many of the same cortical pathways as voluntary facial movements.

By Natalia Mesa
8 January 2026 | 5 min read

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