Nicholette Zeliadt manages The Transmitters’s staff reporters and interns, and she commissions and edits news articles. She joined The Transmitter as news writer in 2014. Before that, she was a freelance writer and editor. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, Scientific American, Nature Medicine, Science and The Scientist.

Education

  • Ph.D. in environmental health, University of Minnesota
  • B.A. in biochemistry, University of Iowa

Fellowships

  • AAAS Mass Media Fellowship

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The illusion of AI consciousness: Lessons from human unconscious processing

Complex, goal-directed and even emotionally responsive behavior can unfold without awareness, providing a useful lens for interpreting artificial systems.

By Vanessa Hadid, Karim Jerbi, John W. Krakauer
8 June 2026 | 0 min watch
Research image of cell-surface protein LPHN2.

‘Push-pull’ recipe for neural wiring used in multiple brain regions

A versatile pair of proteins steers neurons toward their targets and helps establish the brain’s sensory maps, new studies suggest.

By Holly Barker
5 June 2026 | 5 min read
Research image showing dopamine level spikes.

Reward-learning algorithm hardwired into dopamine circuit

The finding bolsters the canonical model of reward prediction error, which has come under scrutiny in recent years.

By Natalia Mesa
5 June 2026 | 5 min read