Joe Palca
Joe Palca is a science correspondent for NPR. Since joining NPR in 1992, Palca has covered a range of science topics — everything from biomedical research to astronomy. He is currently focused on the eponymous series, "Joe's Big Idea." Stories in the series explore the minds and motivations of scientists and inventors. Palca is also the founder of NPR Scicommers – A science communication collective.
Palca began his journalism career in television in 1982, working as a health producer for the CBS affiliate in Washington, DC. In 1986, he left television for a seven-year stint as a print journalist, first as the Washington news editor for Nature, and then as a senior correspondent for Science Magazine.
In October 2009, Palca took a six-month leave from NPR to become science writer in residence at The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens.
Palca has won numerous awards, including the National Academies Communications Award, the Science-in-Society Award of the National Association of Science Writers, the American Chemical Society's James T. Grady-James H. Stack Award for Interpreting Chemistry for the Public, the American Association for the Advancement of Science Journalism Prize, and the Victor Cohn Prize for Excellence in Medical Writing. In 2019, Palca was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences for outstanding achievement in journalism.
With Flora Lichtman, Palca is the co-author of Annoying: The Science of What Bugs Us (Wiley, 2011).
He comes to journalism from a science background, having received a Ph.D. in psychology from the University of California at Santa Cruz, where he worked on human sleep physiology.
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Scientists around the world are working on a way to inject vaccines painlessly. The trick is to make the needles so small. they don't interact with the nerve endings that signal pain. -
Getting a shot is a pain. But scientists are working on a way to inject a vaccine without the ouch. The solution: a patch that applies an array of microscopic needles and feels like Velcro.
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The FDA has said that the COVID-19 vaccine made by Pfizer can be used in children as young as 12, expanding the number of people in the U.S. who qualify for the vaccine.
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Using two different COVID-19 vaccines is a bit like giving the immune system two pictures of the virus, maybe one face-on and one in profile. -
Researchers are exploring a mix-and-match strategy for vaccinating people against COVID-19. That means using two different kinds of vaccines instead of the same brand of vaccine twice.
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Researchers are trying to come up with tests that can be performed using a blood sample that will determine not only whether a COVID-19 vaccine will work but also for how long. -
Scientists are working on boosters to deal with the possibility that current COVID-19 vaccines may eventually wear off — or the virus will mutate in ways that will evade the vaccine's protections.
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The CDC and FDA have asked to pause using the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine after six women developed a rare blood clot condition and one died. The pause is only expected to last days.
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The FDA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention called for the pause in the use of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine — following reports of blood clots in six women who received the vaccine.
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The three vaccines available in the U.S. are safe and effective, but not ideal. Now, work is underway to create more convenient and potent vaccines, including a tablet and nasal spray.
