
Nell Greenfieldboyce
Nell Greenfieldboyce is a NPR science correspondent.
With reporting focused on general science, NASA, and the intersection between technology and society, Greenfieldboyce has been on the science desk's technology beat since she joined NPR in 2005.
In that time Greenfieldboyce has reported on topics including the narwhals in Greenland, the ending of the space shuttle program, and the reasons why independent truckers don't want electronic tracking in their cabs.
Much of Greenfieldboyce's reporting reflects an interest in discovering how applied science and technology connects with people and culture. She has worked on stories spanning issues such as pet cloning, gene therapy, ballistics, and federal regulation of new technology.
Prior to NPR, Greenfieldboyce spent a decade working in print, mostly magazines including U.S. News & World Report and New Scientist.
A graduate of Johns Hopkins, earning her Bachelor's of Arts degree in social sciences and a Master's of Arts degree in science writing, Greenfieldboyce taught science writing for four years at the university. She was honored for her talents with the Evert Clark/Seth Payne Award for Young Science Journalists.
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Hubble's iconic images captured the public's imagination. Will NASA's next big space telescope, which sees infrared light, produce astronomy scenes that pack a similar punch?
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An experiment involving dog treats suggests our canine pals may understand the difference when a human withholds a treat by accident and when they do so on purpose. But don't press your luck.
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A mysterious disease is killing off the West Coast's enormous sunflower sea star, so researchers have launched an ambitious effort to breed this species in captivity.
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Potentially, observers in plenty of star systems could have detected Earth sometime in the last 5,000 years. More stars will soon move into positions that would let them see our planet.
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Little is known about the night-time habits of tiny creatures all around us. Take the jumping spider--it mysteriously can spend much of the night suspended in mid-air, hanging by a thread.
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Something went boom in outer space and sent radioactive stardust our way, and it's just been found at the bottom of the ocean.
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Biologists say newly efficient and accurate gene sequencing techniques have allowed them to fairly quickly detail full genomes and find overlooked genes in a broad range of 25 important species.
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Scientists in Michigan went out in the dead of night to dig up part of an unusual long-term experiment. It's a research study that started in 1879 and is handed from one generation to the next.
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From fish in jars to rare seeds and microbes, hundreds of millions of biological specimens are stored around the U.S., and caretakers are trying to make them accessible for future research.
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Octopuses have an "active" phase of sleep, the kind that might involve dreaming, but they probably don't have long, complicated dreams like people do.