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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Exposing people to a potentially fatal disease could hasten understanding of COVID-19 and development of new vaccines and treatments. But the risks of such studies raise serious ethical questions. -
The committee voted 22 to nothing in favor of the new vaccine.
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The Food and Drug Administration has released its assessment of an application from Johnson & Johnson for emergency use authorization for its vaccine. It finds the vaccine safe and effective.
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NASA's six-wheeled rover landed successfully on Mars yesterday. NPR's Joe Palca talks about the descent and landing, and what's next for the mission.
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The UAE probe arrives at Mars on Tuesday, Feb 9. Its purpose is to both study the weather on Mars as well as inspire the next generation of that country's scientists and engineers. -
The two countries are vying for a role in ending the pandemic by offering their vaccines to countries that can't afford or obtain other vaccines. And a new study reports a promising efficacy rate. -
Even if the Biden administration releases all available doses of COVID-19 vaccines, supplies will remain limited. How best to use that limited supply is a question mathematicians can help answer. -
Mathematical models can help public health officials decide how best to deploy the COVID-19 vaccine when it is in short supply.
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An FDA advisory panel has endorsed a second COVID-19 vaccine, the Moderna vaccine.The Food and Drug Administration will decide soon whether to grant emergency use authorization to the vaccine.
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The FDA released detailed analysis of the vaccine ahead of a Thursday meeting of a group of independent experts that will advise the agency on whether to authorize the vaccine for emergency use.
