Siri Carpenter is an award-winning science writer and editor based in Madison, Wisconsin. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, O: the Oprah Magazine, Science, Scientific American Mind, Science News, and many other publications. She’s first author on the psychology textbook Visualizing Psychology (John Wiley & Sons, 2007). She is also co-founder and editor-in-chief of The Open Notebook, a nonprofit organization and website that provides resources to help science journalists improve their skills.
Siri Carpenter
Freelance Writer
Spectrum
From this contributor
The children who leave autism behind
Some children shed the symptoms of autism and eventually lose their diagnosis. What sets them apart?
Explore more from The Transmitter
Nuclear location helps control gene activity during brain development
A study of developing human brain tissue suggests that genes switch on more strongly when they move from the nucleus’s edge toward structures that contain proteins involved in making and processing RNA.
Nuclear location helps control gene activity during brain development
A study of developing human brain tissue suggests that genes switch on more strongly when they move from the nucleus’s edge toward structures that contain proteins involved in making and processing RNA.
By
Giorgia Guglielmi
20 August 2026 | 4 min read
Five-year-old human brain organoids aged on schedule
The cultured spheres typically mimic only prenatal development, but the five-year-old ones grown in Paola Arlotta’s lab acquired postnatal features.
Five-year-old human brain organoids aged on schedule
The cultured spheres typically mimic only prenatal development, but the five-year-old ones grown in Paola Arlotta’s lab acquired postnatal features.
By
Claudia López Lloreda
19 August 2026 | 5 min read
Marco Facchin explores the ever-shifting landscape of neuroscience theory and philosophy
Computational explanations of cognition, though powerful, aren't the only game in town.
Marco Facchin explores the ever-shifting landscape of neuroscience theory and philosophy
Computational explanations of cognition, though powerful, aren't the only game in town.
By
Paul Middlebrooks
19 August 2026 | 1 min read