Carrie Arnold is a Virginia-based freelance science journalist who covers many aspects of the living world. She’s a contributing editor at NOVA Next, and has also written for Mosaic, National Geographic, Aeon, Nautilus, Scientific American and Women’s Health. She is also the author of “Decoding Anorexia: How Breakthroughs in Science Offer Hope for Eating Disorders.”
Carrie Arnold
From this contributor
Weighing up autism’s obesity crisis
Autism’s underlying biology, associated behaviors and treatments can all put people on the spectrum at serious risk for obesity.
Rare form of autism shows unique pattern of regression
More than 40 percent of children with Phelan-McDermid syndrome lose skills they once had, beginning, on average, at age 6.
Rare form of autism shows unique pattern of regression
By
Carrie Arnold
24 May 2017 | 3 min read
The innovators: How families launch their own autism studies
Some parents are starting ‘N-of-1’ studies for autism, but their efforts don’t always get taken seriously.
The innovators: How families launch their own autism studies
By
Carrie Arnold
28 September 2016 | 20 min read
The invisible link between autism and anorexia
Autism and anorexia may seem to have nothing in common, but below the surface, the two conditions are startlingly similar—and sometimes affect the same person.
The invisible link between autism and anorexia
By
Carrie Arnold
17 February 2016 | 18 min read
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A child’s socioeconomic status, screen time and amount of sleep all show stronger associations with measures of brain structure and function, according to an imaging study of nearly 12,000 9- to 10-year-olds.
IQ’s link to brain structure, function in children may be a mirage
A child’s socioeconomic status, screen time and amount of sleep all show stronger associations with measures of brain structure and function, according to an imaging study of nearly 12,000 9- to 10-year-olds.
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Natalia Mesa
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When autistic kids grow up, Chapter 2: “You need to go to college”
With just a high school equivalency degree and struggling as a single mother, Tempest McDonald is forced to shift her priorities.
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Brady Huggett
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Noncoding RNA sways core autism traits in mice
Small deletions in an X-linked RNA alter social and repetitive behaviors in male mice without broadly affecting learning or memory.
Noncoding RNA sways core autism traits in mice
Small deletions in an X-linked RNA alter social and repetitive behaviors in male mice without broadly affecting learning or memory.
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Giorgia Guglielmi
11 June 2026 | 4 min read