Headshot of Yves Sciama.

Yves Sciama

Contributing writer

Yves Sciama is a freelance science writer, trained in biology and science journalism, who covers life and environmental sciences. His work has appeared in Science et VieLe Monde and other major French-language media, as well as in Science. He has won multiple prizes and fellowships, including a yearlong Knight Science Journalism Fellowship at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2014, and is former president of AJSPI, the French association of science journalists.

From this contributor

Explore more from The Transmitter

Is our intelligence rooted in how living organisms are organized?

Kathryn Nave explains how a concept called constraint closure may be fundamental to understanding brains, minds and cognition.

By Paul Middlebrooks
15 July 2026 | 1 min read
Soha Ashrafi photo collage art.

Making an impact through academic administration

As executive director of research at Harvard Medical School’s Department of Neurobiology, Soha Ashrafi supports more than 300 scientists, students and staff members.

By Katie Moisse
15 July 2026 | 7 min read
Illustration of birdsong, bird brain, and DNA.

This paper changed my life: Embracing an early model for naturalistic neuroscience

A 1992 PNAS paper showed how birdsong upregulates the expression of an immediate early gene in bird forebrains. The work revealed to Ribeiro the importance of studying molecular responses in naturalistic contexts.

By Sidarta Ribeiro
14 July 2026 | 4 min read