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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A station to detect nuclear weapons tests picked up the volcanic eruption in Tonga from Antarctica. Some experts say the blast could be more than 50 megatons, while NASA estimates 6-10 megatons.
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Researchers who have been studying the volcano since 2015 say it was likely caused by seawater flowing into a chamber filled with magma. -
Researchers who detected environmental DNA, or eDNA, in two zoos say the technique could one day be used to look for endangered species in remote locations in the wild.
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The new research affirms what many individuals had reported. But it also shows the changes to the menstrual cycle are mostly minor and brief, more akin to a sore arm than a dangerous reaction.
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Researchers sampled air from a zoological park and found DNA from nearby animals. They hope the work can be used to track endangered species in the wild.
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Disinformation — about the Jan. 6 attack, COVID-19, vaccines, etc. — shaped the nation's politics in 2021 and likely will continue to do so throughout the coming year.
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Biologist and environmental activist E.O. Wilson died on Sunday at the age of 92. Wilson advocated for biodiversity and conservation.
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As the U.S. heads into midterm elections next year, the political right and the anti-vaccine movement are drawing ever-closer together — potentially at the cost of thousands of American lives.
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An analysis by NPR shows that since the vaccine rollout, counties that voted heavily for Donald Trump have had more than twice the COVID mortality rates of those that voted for Joe Biden.
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A few years back, a telescope picked up a radio signal that seemed to be coming from a nearby star. One possibility? Aliens! The story on how this real-life hunt for ET unfolded.
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Russia has conducted an antisatellite weapons test. The resulting debris field has forced astronauts on the International Space Station to take shelter while the debris flies by in orbit.
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Lee Merritt is a back surgeon with a long history of spreading COVID misinformation. But she renewed her medical license last month.
