Delia O’Hara is an award-winning writer and journalist, a former longtime features reporter for the Chicago Sun-Times. Specialties include science, health care, profiles, education, history, culture and the arts for magazines and websites. She is presently a member of the National Association of Science Writers and the Association of Health Care Journalists. She is also a published short story writer.
Delia O’Hara
From this contributor
Beyond the bench: A conversation with Konstantinos Zarbalis
Konstantinos “Kostas” Zarbalis talks about the upside of unexpected experimental results, and why he eats just one meal per day.
Beyond the bench: A conversation with Konstantinos Zarbalis
By
Delia O’Hara
10 February 2022 | 6 min read
Beyond the bench: A conversation with Kristin Sohl
When pediatrician Kristin Sohl isn’t building programs to improve care for and research about autistic people, you can find her reading psychological thrillers or playing Pokémon Go.
Beyond the bench: A conversation with Kristin Sohl
By
Delia O’Hara
13 January 2022 | 6 min read
Beyond the bench: A conversation with Andrew Whitehouse
Andrew Whitehouse talks about his conservation efforts in the Australian Outback, what it’s like to be an identical twin and why he leaves work promptly at 5 p.m.
Beyond the bench: A conversation with Andrew Whitehouse
By
Delia O’Hara
24 November 2021 | 7 min read
Beyond the bench: A conversation with Ethan Scott
Ethan Scott packs his lab with math, physics and computer science experts to decode sensory brain networks in zebrafish models of autism.
Beyond the bench: A conversation with Ethan Scott
By
Delia O’Hara
13 September 2021 | 9 min read
Explore more from The Transmitter
The genome offers a recipe, not a blueprint, for the brain
During brain development, genes set the rules and turn the knobs; self-organization does much of the rest.
The genome offers a recipe, not a blueprint, for the brain
During brain development, genes set the rules and turn the knobs; self-organization does much of the rest.
By
Ila Fiete
2 November 2026 | 8 min read
Autism research involving monkeys contends with uphill battle
Macaques and marmosets recapitulate the condition’s core traits better than mice can, but funding uncertainty and challenges at primate centers in the United States could make this work difficult to continue.
Autism research involving monkeys contends with uphill battle
Macaques and marmosets recapitulate the condition’s core traits better than mice can, but funding uncertainty and challenges at primate centers in the United States could make this work difficult to continue.
By
Diana Kwon
2 November 2026 | 8 min read
When is self-organization a mechanism in brain development?
Retinal waves offer a powerful example of a self-organizing system that can build structure without external guidance. The field would do well to embrace such phenomena more broadly as a type of mechanistic explanation.
When is self-organization a mechanism in brain development?
Retinal waves offer a powerful example of a self-organizing system that can build structure without external guidance. The field would do well to embrace such phenomena more broadly as a type of mechanistic explanation.
By
P. Robin Hiesinger
2 November 2026 | 6 min read