Geoff Brumfiel
Geoff Brumfiel works as a senior editor and correspondent on NPR's science desk. His editing duties include science and space, while his reporting focuses on the intersection of science and national security.
From April of 2016 to September of 2018, Brumfiel served as an editor overseeing basic research and climate science. Prior to that, he worked for three years as a reporter covering physics and space for the network. Brumfiel has carried his microphone into ghost villages created by the Fukushima nuclear accident in Japan. He's tracked the journey of highly enriched uranium as it was shipped out of Poland. For a story on how animals drink, he crouched for over an hour and tried to convince his neighbor's cat to lap a bowl of milk.
Before NPR, Brumfiel was based in London as a senior reporter for Nature Magazine from 2007-2013. There, he covered energy, space, climate, and the physical sciences. From 2002 – 2007, Brumfiel was Nature Magazine's Washington Correspondent.
Brumfiel is the 2013 winner of the Association of British Science Writers award for news reporting on the Fukushima nuclear accident.
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In 1721, London was in the grips of a deadly smallpox epidemic. One woman learned how to stop it, but her solution sowed political division. -
More hospitalized patients are surviving than early in the pandemic. Improved treatments make a big difference, but so does flattening the curve to keep hospitals from overfilling, researchers say. -
Dr. Scott Atlas is a radiologist from Stanford with some unorthodox ideas about managing the pandemic. The White House says his thinking is just what's needed, but scientists aren't so sure. -
NPR's White House and science correspondents discuss President Trump's new top coronavirus adviser, Scott Atlas, and his approach to dealing with the pandemic.
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A growing number of researchers think until there's an effective vaccine, the coronavirus will simply persist in the population, causing illness indefinitely. Better to squelch the spread instead. -
As the pandemic drags on, researchers are increasingly doubtful that so-called "herd immunity" can be reached without a vaccine. Many now believe COVID-19 may be around forever.
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After an aborted launch attempt to the International Space Station on Wednesday, the weather cleared and the launch went ahead on Saturday. -
Later this week, NASA and SpaceX will launch the first rocket carrying astronauts from U.S. soil since the end of the space shuttle era. But COVID-19 has forced some changes to their plans. -
Countries around the world have imposed various travel bans to fight the pandemic. But those restrictions are contradicting international health regulations and might not be viable long-term.
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An analysis by NPR finds many nations are tossing aside international health regulations and imposing strict travel restrictions. Experts say the benefits are likely to be small.
