Claudia Wallis is an award-winning science writer and magazine editor whose work has appeared in The New York Times, Time, Fortune, The New Republic, Scientific American and Rolling Stone. She is a health columnist for Scientific American and writes “The Science of Learning” column for the Hechinger Report. Wallis is the author of 40 Time Magazine cover stories, two of which were National Magazine Award finalists. Her writing has won journalism prizes from the American Psychiatric Association, the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, and the National Women’s Political Caucus, among other organizations.
Claudia Wallis
Science writer
From this contributor
Book Review: ‘Nobody’s Normal’ chronicles the intertwined history of mental illness and stigma
Anthropologist and autism expert Richard Roy Grinker’s latest title reveals how our definitions of mental illnesses and notions of ‘normality’ reek of cultural biases that stop many from seeking help.
Book Review: ‘Nobody’s Normal’ chronicles the intertwined history of mental illness and stigma
By
Claudia Wallis
26 January 2021 | 6 min read
Book Review: ‘The Pattern Seekers’ links human invention — past, present and future — to autism traits
Simon Baron-Cohen’s new book is essentially a 272-page argument for his hypothesis that all human innovation stems from the ability to discern and manipulate causal patterns.
Book Review: ‘The Pattern Seekers’ links human invention — past, present and future — to autism traits
By
Claudia Wallis
10 November 2020 | 6 min read
How to get children with autism to sleep
Insomnia troubles many children with autism. Luckily, research is awakening parents to some simple bedtime solutions.
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Mitochondrial ‘landscape’ shifts across human brain
Evolutionarily newer regions sport mitochondria with a higher capacity for energy production than older regions, according to the first detailed map of the organelles in a tissue slice, adding to mounting evidence that the brain features a metabolic gradient.
Mitochondrial ‘landscape’ shifts across human brain
Evolutionarily newer regions sport mitochondria with a higher capacity for energy production than older regions, according to the first detailed map of the organelles in a tissue slice, adding to mounting evidence that the brain features a metabolic gradient.
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Claudia López Lloreda
25 April 2025 | 6 min read
Expediting clinical trials for profound autism: Q&A with Matthew State
Aligning Research to Impact Autism, a new initiative funded by the Sergey Brin Family Foundation, wants to bring basic science discoveries to the clinic faster.
Expediting clinical trials for profound autism: Q&A with Matthew State
Aligning Research to Impact Autism, a new initiative funded by the Sergey Brin Family Foundation, wants to bring basic science discoveries to the clinic faster.
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Lauren Schenkman
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This paper changed my life: Shane Liddelow on two papers that upended astrocyte research
A game-changing cell culture method developed in Ben Barres’ lab completely transformed the way we study astrocytes and helped me build a career studying their reactive substates.
This paper changed my life: Shane Liddelow on two papers that upended astrocyte research
A game-changing cell culture method developed in Ben Barres’ lab completely transformed the way we study astrocytes and helped me build a career studying their reactive substates.
By
Shane Liddelow
23 April 2025 | 6 min read