Alla Katsnelson is a freelance science writer and editor specializing in biology, health and medicine. She is particularly interested in bringing the methodological issues that make science tick – the use of animal models in research, for example — to a wider audience. Her work has appeared in Nature, Scientific American, BBC Future, The Scientist, and other outlets. She also covers conferences for several science foundations. Alla earned a doctorate in rat whiskers at the University of Oxford and made the transition to science writing with the help of the Science Communication Program at the University of California, Santa Cruz.