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Recent articles

Illustration of spiny mouse.

Learning why spiny mice play well with others

Aubrey Kelly studies the gregarious mammal to explore how the brain controls complex social behaviors “akin to friendship.”

By Hannah Thomasy
2 June 2026 | 5 min read
Illustration of people connecting basic science.

Bringing basic biology back to INSAR

As the International Society for Autism Research has grown over the past two decades, basic science has become less central, Christine Wu Nordahl says. This year, she and other meeting organizers aimed to change that.

By Diana Kwon
28 May 2026 | 6 min read
Collage with a portrait of Suzanne Wood.

The ‘secretly awesome’ side of a teaching career

The freedom to do “wacky” research projects that interest you is a major perk of the teaching stream, says Suzanne Wood, a teaching professor at the University of Toronto.

By Katie Moisse
20 May 2026 | 7 min read

The silent majority: How astrocytes shape the brain across scales

Melissa Cooper talks to Mac Shine about her new work that reveals how these glial cells—long dismissed as the brain’s housekeepers—wire together in precise, long-range networks that remodel in response to experience.

By Mac Shine
12 May 2026 | 29 min watch
leech illustration.

What leeches reveal about movement

Lidia Szczupak turned to the animals to explore how the nervous system coordinates movement.

By Claudia López Lloreda
1 May 2026 | 6 min read
Collage illustration with a portrait of Mia Thomaidou.

Frameshift: How Mia Thomaidou tapped a fellowship to connect neuroscience to criminal justice

As a fellow at the Dana Foundation, she merged two familiar passions and discovered a new one: science philanthropy.

By Katie Moisse
21 April 2026 | 6 min read

What a bird’s-eye view of half a million papers reveals about neuroscience

New research uses artificial-intellligence-driven bibliometrics to map the structural organization of neuroscience across 25 years. The field it reveals is at once thriving and theoretically adrift.

By Mac Shine
6 April 2026 | 36 min watch
Gecko with circular pulses emanating from its head.

What geckos tell us about the evolution of hearing

Catherine Carr explains her discovery that geckos retain a vibration-sensing pathway previously thought to be lost when animals moved onto land.

By Helena Kudiabor
1 April 2026 | 5 min read
Collage with a portrait of Caitlin Vander Weele in the foreground.

Frameshift: How Caitlin Vander Weele made science communication her business

Her favorite part of research was talking about it. So she left academia and turned that passion into a successful company.

By Katie Moisse
19 March 2026 | 6 min read
Tick on a leaf raises its forelegs.

The secret sensory world of ticks

Carola Städele, a self-proclaimed “tick magnet,” studies the arachnids’ sensory neurobiology—in other words, how these tiny parasites zero in on their next meal.

By Calli McMurray
3 March 2026 | 6 min read

Explore more from The Transmitter

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
Burke Neurological Institute.

Exclusive: Brain and spinal cord institute halts research, citing funding problems

The Burke Neurological Institute, which calls itself “the only research institute in the U.S. dedicated to finding treatments to repair the brain and spinal cord,” ceased research operations on 22 May.

By Lauren Schenkman
4 June 2026 | 5 min read