Brooke Borel is a science writer, journalist, and author. She’s a contributing editor at Popular Science and she has also written for the Atlantic, Slate, and PBS’s NOVA Next, among others. Her first book, Infested: How the Bed Bug Infiltrated Our Bedrooms and Took Over the World published in 2015.
Brooke Borel
Science writer, journalist, author.
From this contributor
Of mice and women
A new government mandate requires researchers to include females in their animal studies — or explain why they don't. What will this mean for autism research?
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Dispute erupts over universal cortical brain-wave claim
The debate highlights opposing views on how the cortex transmits information.
Dispute erupts over universal cortical brain-wave claim
The debate highlights opposing views on how the cortex transmits information.
By
Claudia López Lloreda
12 December 2025 | 5 min read
Waves of calcium activity dictate eye structure in flies
Synchronized signals in non-neuronal retinal cells draw the tiny compartments of a fruit fly’s compound eye into alignment during pupal development.
Waves of calcium activity dictate eye structure in flies
Synchronized signals in non-neuronal retinal cells draw the tiny compartments of a fruit fly’s compound eye into alignment during pupal development.
By
Lauren Schneider
12 December 2025 | 0 min watch
Among brain changes studied in autism, spotlight shifts to subcortex
The striatum and thalamus are more likely than the cerebral cortex to express autism variants or bear transcriptional changes, two unpublished studies find.
Among brain changes studied in autism, spotlight shifts to subcortex
The striatum and thalamus are more likely than the cerebral cortex to express autism variants or bear transcriptional changes, two unpublished studies find.
By
Holly Barker
11 December 2025 | 5 min read