Laura Sanders

1 week ago | sciencenews.org | Laura Sanders

The symphony of summer is under way: Lawn mowers droning, cicadas buzzing, kids shrieking, outdoor concerts and cracking fireworks. Summer’s delights often reach us through our ears. But protecting our hearing is often an afterthought, if we think of it at all. Here, I’m urging you to take a moment to appreciate the sounds in your life — not as the daughter of an audiologist (which I am) or as a neuroscience writer (also me), but as an everyday enthusiast of sounds.

2 weeks ago | sciencenews.org | Laura Sanders

Autism in toddlerhood looks the same in boys and girls. A large study of autistic kids between 1 and 4 years old turned up no overt differences in symptoms. Those results, published May 26 in Nature Human Behaviour, add clarity to how the disorder plays out in the first years of life. A deeper understanding of these symptoms could help clinicians identify kids who might benefit from specialized help early on.

2 weeks ago | autism.einnews.com | Laura Sanders |Tina Saey

Autism in toddlerhood looks the same in boys and girls. A large study of autistic kids between 1 and 4 years old turned up no overt differences in symptoms. Those results, published May 26 in Nature Human Behaviour, add clarity to how the disorder plays out in the first years of life. A deeper understanding of these symptoms could help clinicians identify kids who might benefit from specialized help early on.

1 month ago | sciencenews.org | Laura Sanders

Brain cells named for stars are finally getting their time to shine. Three distinct studies, published May 15 in Science, show that astrocytes, once thought of as support cells, powerfully shape how brains work. These findings — from the brains of fruit flies, zebrafish and mice — open new possibilities for therapies aimed at mental illnesses such as depression and schizophrenia. They could also lead to a deeper understanding of how current therapies work.

1 month ago | snexplores.org | Laura Sanders

anterior: An adjective meaning near the front of some structure, or it can mean earlier tin time. behavior: The way something, often a person or other organism, acts towards others, or conducts itself. birds: Warm-blooded dinosaurs with wings that first showed up at least 150 million years ago. Birds are jacketed in feathers and produce young from the eggs they deposit in some sort of nest. Most birds fly, but throughout history there have been the occasional species that don’t.