Beth Shapiro shares thoughts on her award-winning book, How To Clone a Mammoth, in this Spotlight on Science Writers post.

Daniela Witten, Assistant Professor of Biostatistics at the University of Washington, who was featured three times in Forbes’ 30 Under 30 and works on statistical machine learning to find ways of using Big Data to solve problems in genomics and biomedical sciences discusses Big Data in our second interview.

The language and cognitive difficulties often seen in autism may be caused in part by an overly connected frontal lobe within the brain, says a new study of children published in Science Translational Medicine.

The research points to a gene called CNTNAP2 as responsible for wiring neurons in the front of the brain. If carrying different versions of CNTNAP2 is found to be a consistent predictor of language difficulties, the findings may help researchers design targeted therapies to assist the brain toward a path of more normative development early on.