Melinda Wenner Moyer


Melinda Wenner Moyer (@Lindy2350) is a science writer based in New York’s Hudson Valley. She is a visiting scholar at NYU’s Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute and an Alicia Patterson fellow. Moyer writes a column for Slate and is a contributing editor at Scientific American. Her work has also appeared in the New York Times, Mother Jones, and a number of women’s magazines.

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Ground squirrel.

How thirteen-lined ground squirrels illuminate retinal development

In most mammalian retinas, rods outnumber cones. But that ratio is flipped in ground squirrels, a quirk that helps Seth Blackshaw explore how retinal cells develop their identities.

By Sarah Thau
31 July 2026 | 5 min read
Research image of the association cortex.

Cortical territories compete in developmental space race

Sensory and association regions are established through a reciprocal process, according to a new model of cortical development.

By Holly Barker
30 July 2026 | 5 min read