portrait of writer Leah Shaffer

Leah Shaffer

Freelance writer

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.

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Photo collage of Tempest McDonald.

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Headshots of Yale researchers Yong-Hui Jiang and Jiangbing Zhou.

Supported by a $40 million NIH grant, Yale brain shuttle technology raises questions

Yale University claims its STEP platform might be able to deliver gene-editing tools into the brain via multiple routes. Researchers are eager to see more.

By Natalia Mesa
3 June 2026 | 11 min read

What counts as a ‘naturalistic’ behavior?

Nedah Nemati explains how neuroscience methods and the lived experience of the scientists themselves shape how we define the behaviors we seek to explain.

By Paul Middlebrooks
3 June 2026 | 1 min read