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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The rocket cleared the launchpad and separated from its booster, surpassing the first attempt. But minutes later, controllers lost contact with the vehicle. -
A 75-year-old woman became enmeshed in conspiracy theories about COVID. After she got infected, she rejected effective treatments and sought out black market drugs instead. -
Some people have reported getting a lighter or heavier period after getting a COVID-19 vaccine. Cause for concern? Doctors say no. Could it be a temporary side-effect? That's harder to determine. -
One in four Americans say they won't get a coronavirus vaccine. Researchers say it could keep the nation from reaching a critical tipping point. -
Four astronauts are flying to the International Space Station aboard SpaceX's Dragon crew capsule. The mission is the first of what NASA hopes are many. -
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. -
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. -
After an aborted launch attempt to the International Space Station on Wednesday, the weather cleared and the launch went ahead on Saturday. -
With astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken strapped inside the capsule and the countdown narrowing, poor weather conditions forced an abort. The next opportunity to try will be on Saturday. -
SpaceX and a rival company are rushing ahead with plans for constellations of thousands of satellites, but regulators might not be ready.
