Leah Shaffer is a freelance science writer based in St. Louis, Missouri. Her stories have appeared in publications such as Wired, The Atlantic, Discover, NOVA Next and UnDark. She writes about biology, medicine and the weird critters inside and outside the human body.
Leah Shaffer
Freelance writer
From this contributor
Supplements, worms and stool: How families are trying to game the gut to treat autism traits
Scientists are playing catch-up as microbiome-based treatments for autism proliferate.
Supplements, worms and stool: How families are trying to game the gut to treat autism traits
By
Leah Shaffer
26 June 2019 | 16 min read
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A new atlas of abstracts visualizes the field of human brain mapping—where does your work fit?
Satrajit Ghosh talks to Mac Shine about a community-built tool that places every abstract from the 2026 Organization for Human Brain Mapping meeting inside a semantic map of the broader neuroscience literature. Finding your neighbors in that space might matter more than you think.
A new atlas of abstracts visualizes the field of human brain mapping—where does your work fit?
Satrajit Ghosh talks to Mac Shine about a community-built tool that places every abstract from the 2026 Organization for Human Brain Mapping meeting inside a semantic map of the broader neuroscience literature. Finding your neighbors in that space might matter more than you think.
By
Mac Shine
9 June 2026 | 3 min read