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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India's lunar mission went into sleep mode on Monday following two weeks of exploration on the Moon. The landing near the Lunar South Pole marks a major milestone for the nation's space program.
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The achievement marks the first time an artificial intelligence system has been able to regularly beat humans in a real-world competition and could lead to better drones in the future. -
The water comes from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. Although most scientists agree it does not pose an immediate environmental threat, some are worried about the long-term consequences.
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Wednesday morning, India will attempt to land a robotic probe on the moon. The targeted landing site of this mission is near the lunar south pole.
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In recent months, several academic groups have claimed possible discoveries of materials that super-conduct at room temperature. Outside researchers, however, are skeptical.
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Russia's Luna-25 mission ended in failure Sunday, when the probe reportedly crashed into the moon unexpectedly. India will make a second attempt at landing on lunar surface on Wednesday.
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India and Russia are sending landers to spots near the south pole, which has water ice that might one day be mined to make rocket fuel.
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Scientists have used a gene-editing technique to make mosquitos allies in the fight against malaria. Environmentalists are troubled by the idea of genetically modifying wild animals.
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The dust, which came from distant stars, is thought to be similar to grains that eventually helped form the planets, including Earth.
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NPR's Adrian Florido talks with Short Wave hosts Regina Barber and Geoff Brumfiel about a copper-age "queen," a 500-million-year-old sea squirt, and a way to help mosquitoes fight malaria.
