Shaena Montanari was a reporter for The Transmitter from 2023 to 2025. She was previously an investigative health reporter at the Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting in Phoenix. Prior to becoming a journalist, Shaena worked as a paleontologist.
Shaena Montanari
Former reporter
The Transmitter
From this contributor
Neuropeptides reprogram social roles in leafcutter ants
By
Shaena Montanari
11 July 2025 | 6 min read
Nature retracts paper on novel brain cell type against authors’ wishes
By
Shaena Montanari
9 July 2025 | 4 min read
Authors correct image errors in Neuron paper that challenged microglia-to-neuron conversion
By
Shaena Montanari
26 June 2025 | 3 min read
Releasing the Hydra with Rafael Yuste
By
Brady Huggett, Shaena Montanari
4 April 2025 | 10 min read
Plaque levels differ in popular Alzheimer’s mouse model depending on which parent’s variants are passed down
By
Shaena Montanari
4 February 2025 | 0 min watch
Education
- M.A. in investigative journalism, Arizona State University
- Ph.D. in comparative biology, Richard Gilder Graduate School at the American Museum of Natural History
- B.S. in geological sciences, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Fellowships
- AAAS Science and Technology Policy Fellowship
- AAAS Mass Media Fellowship
- Royal Society Newton International Fellowship
Articles
- “Cracking the egg: the use of modern and fossil eggs for ecological, environmental and biological interpretation” | Royal Society Open Science
- “Pliocene paleoenvironments of southeastern Queensland, Australia inferred from stable isotopes of marsupial tooth enamel” | PLOS ONE
- “Dinosaur eggshell and tooth enamel geochemistry as an indicator of Mongolian Late Cretaceous paleoenvironments” | Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology
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7 April 2026 | 2 min read
‘The Brain, In Theory,’ an excerpt
In his new book, Brette pushes back against theories that describe the brain as a “biological computer.” In this excerpt from Chapter 4, he challenges equating brain evolution with programming, and the universality of neural network models.
‘The Brain, In Theory,’ an excerpt
In his new book, Brette pushes back against theories that describe the brain as a “biological computer.” In this excerpt from Chapter 4, he challenges equating brain evolution with programming, and the universality of neural network models.
By
Romain Brette
7 April 2026 | 5 min read
Computational neuroscientist Keith Hengen explains his work through illustrations
The images help him communicate the “big-picture ideas” behind the mathematical principles of neuronal networks.
Computational neuroscientist Keith Hengen explains his work through illustrations
The images help him communicate the “big-picture ideas” behind the mathematical principles of neuronal networks.
By
Helena Kudiabor
7 April 2026 | 4 min read