Marta Zaraska


Marta Zaraska is a freelance science journalist whose work has appeared in The Washington Post, Scientific American and The Boston Globe, among other publications. She has written two literary novels and contributed to two travel books published by National Geographic. Her nonfiction book “Meathooked: The History and Science of Our 2.5-Million-Year Obsession With Meat,” was published in 2016 by Basic Books and chosen by Nature as one of “the best science picks” in March 2016.

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Illustration of cake with genetic code inside.

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
Illustration of four faces of a rhesus macaque transitioning from opaque to transparent.

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
A measuring cup with a whirlpool in it.

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