science

Sandra Blakeslee

Sandra Blakeslee is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Sandra Blakeslee rather than just read about it. In short: Sandra Blakeslee (born 1943) is an American science correspondent of over four decades for The New York Times and science writer, specializing in neuroscience. Together with neuroscientist V.

Key takeaways

Sandra Blakeslee belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Sandra Blakeslee to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Sandra Blakeslee from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Sandra Blakeslee (born 1943) is an American science correspondent of over four decades for The New York Times and science writer, specializing in neuroscience. Together with neuroscientist V. S. Ramachandran, she authored the 1998 popular science book Phantoms in the Brain: Probing the Mysteries of the Human Mind.

Biography Blakeslee is the third member of her family to specialize in science writing; her grandfather Howard W. Blakeslee wrote for the Associated Press, and was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for Reporting in 1937, and her father, Alton L. Blakeslee, also wrote for the AP. Sandra Blakeslee was raised in Port Washington, New York. She attended Northwestern University for two years, before transferring to the University of California, Berkeley, where she majored in political science, graduating in 1965. She then joined the Peace Corps, serving in Sarawak, Borneo, where she taught elementary school. Blakeslee started at the New York Times United Nations bureau and city desk in 1967, before moving to the science desk in 1968. She later began writing for the Times on contract. In the 1980s, she began to specialize in neuroscience. She co-authored a series of books on marriage and divorce with psychologist Judith Wallerstein. Starting in 1995, Blakeslee began hosting a writing workshop with fellow Times writer George Johnson at the Santa Fe Institute, which awarded her a journalism fellowship in 2013. Blakeslee lives in Santa Fe. She has two children. Her son, Matt Blakeslee, is also a science writer, and her co-author on the 2007 book The Body Has a Mind of Its Own: How Body Maps in Your Brain Help You Do (Almost) Everything Better.

Books You Don't Have to Live with Cystitis! How to Avoid It—And What to Do About It (1986) with Larry Gillespie Second Chances: Men, Women and Children a Decade After Divorce (1989) with Judith Wallerstein The Good Marriage: How and Why Love Lasts (1995) with Judith S. Wallerstein Helping Your Kids Cope with Divorce the Sandcastles Way (1998) with Patricia Romanowski Bashe and Judith S. Wallerstein Phantoms in the Brain: Probing the Mysteries of the Human Mind (1998) with V. S. Ramachandran The Unexpected Legacy of Divorce: The 25 Year Landmark Study (2001) with Judith Wallerstein and Julia M. Lewis What About the Kids?: Raising Your Children Before, During and After Divorce (2003) On Intelligence: How a New Understanding of the Brain will Lead to the Creation of Truly Intelligent Machines (2004) with Jeff Hawkins The Body Has a Mind of Its Own: How Body Maps in Your Brain Help You Do (Almost) Everything Better (2007) with Matthew Blakeslee Sleights of Mind: What the Neuroscience of Magic Reveals about Our Everyday Deceptions (2010) with Stephen L. Macknik and Susana Martinez-Conde

References

External links Archived stories at the New York Times Archived stories at Scientific American Sandra Blakeslee on X

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Sandra Blakeslee

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Sandra Blakeslee claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Sandra Blakeslee before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Sandra Blakeslee ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Sandra Blakeslee

In research: Sandra Blakeslee appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Sandra Blakeslee in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Sandra Blakeslee is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1943 births, 21st-century American women, American psychology writers, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Sandra Blakeslee outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Sandra Blakeslee in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Sandra Blakeslee means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Sandra Blakeslee out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Sandra Blakeslee in simple terms?

Sandra Blakeslee (born 1943) is an American science correspondent of over four decades for The New York Times and science writer, specializing in neuroscience. Together with neuroscientist V.

Why does Sandra Blakeslee matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Sandra Blakeslee?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Sandra Blakeslee.