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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Eighteen teams analyzed the same neurophysiology dataset—and got wildly different answers
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The “Brainhack” hackathon revealed that disagreement in neuroscience runs deeper than most researchers suspect—even in electrophysiology, a field that prides itself on hard data.
By
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1 June 2026 | 7 min read