Nicholette Zeliadt manages The Transmitters’s staff reporters and interns, and she commissions and edits news articles. She joined The Transmitter as news writer in 2014. Before that, she was a freelance writer and editor. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, Scientific American, Nature Medicine, Science and The Scientist.

Education

  • Ph.D. in environmental health, University of Minnesota
  • B.A. in biochemistry, University of Iowa

Fellowships

  • AAAS Mass Media Fellowship

Explore more from The Transmitter

Illustration of a sheet of paper with a topography map-like pattern on it.

Why neural foundation models work, and what they might—and might not—teach us about the brain

These models can partly generalize across species, brain regions and tasks, suggesting that a set of machine-learnable rules govern neural population activity. But will we be able to understand them?

By Juan Gallego
13 April 2026 | 8 min read
A fragmenting cube hovers over a person reading a book.

Error equation predicts brain’s ability to generalize

Four statistical measurements of neural network geometry capture how well brains and artificial networks use what they already know to solve new problems, a study suggests.

By Natalia Mesa
10 April 2026 | 5 min read
A large, abstract shape flows out of a small box.

Embrace complexity to improve the translatability of basic neuroscience

Researchers must learn to view heterogeneity as an essential feature of the systems they study and a central consideration in experimental design, not a variable to control for or reduce.

By Linda Douw, Klaus Eyer, Lara Keuck
9 April 2026 | 5 min read