Silhouette of a human head and shoulders.

Jonathan Moens


Jonathan Moens is a former intern at Spectrum and a graduate student at New York University’s Science, Health and Environmental Reporting Program. He studied philosophy and neuroscience as an undergraduate student at University College London in the United Kingdom. He received an M.Sc. in brain and mind sciences at University College London and École Normale Supérieure in Paris, France, specializing in cognitive neuroscience. He previously worked as a research assistant at the Neurospin laboratory in Paris and the Center for the Neuroscience of the Senses in London.

From this contributor

Explore more from The Transmitter

Edgar Adrian works in the laboratory, around 1920.

The neural code at 100

In two 1926 articles, Edgar Douglas Adrian revealed that neurons communicate through trains of spikes.

By Matteo Carandini
12 October 2026 | 8 min read
Illustrated collage of a monkey profile, a gloved hand holding a vaccine syringe touching an outline of the United States with two primates sitting near it, a strand of DNA, and flags of the United States and China in the background.

U.S. national primate research centers face an uncertain future

The facilities were meant to last 100 years. Four decades shy of that mark, amid flatlined funds and mounting political pressure, their directors are trying to find a path forward.

By Calli McMurray
9 October 2026 | 12 min read
Reflections of primates in lab equipment (bottom left: Rhesus macaque, top left: Pig-tailed macaque, bottom right: Crab-eating macaque. top right: Marmoset

What if nonhuman primate research goes away?

As the U.S. government takes steps to stop using nonhuman primates in research, The Transmitter investigates what that shift could mean for neuroscience.

By The Transmitter
9 October 2026 | 2 min read