Nell Greenfieldboyce

Nell Greenfieldboyce joined NPR News in January 2005 to cover the media organization's newly created technology beat for NPR's science desk. The Johns Hopkins alumna has reported on topics such as pet cloning, gene therapy, ballistics, and federal laws surrounding new technology. Her primary interest is researching how applied science and technology connects with people and culture.

Greenfieldboyce's features can currently be heard on Morning Edition and All Things Considered, but before her life at NPR she worked for magazines including U.S. News & World Report and New Scientist. After working in print for ten years, Greenfieldboyce is excited to explore the field of radio and the added effects sound can bring to a piece.

In addition to receiving her B.A. in social sciences and a M.A. in science writing from Johns Hopkins, Greenfieldboyce also taught science writing for four years at the university. Greenfieldboyce was honored for her talents with the Evert Clark/Seth Payne Award for Young Science Journalists.

Greenfieldboyce lives with her husband in Washington, D.C., and does a bit of rug-hooking in her free time, creating complicated geometric patterns out of burlap and scraps of wool.

 

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5:24pm

Fri April 22, 2011
Animals

Steady As A Whale? Humpbacks Swim Straight Lines

Humpback whales swim in amazingly straight lines during their seasonal migrations that cross thousands of miles of open ocean, and a new study says it's not clear how they're able to chart such a steady course.

"It's just absolutely remarkable how straight these courses are," says Travis Horton, an environmental scientist at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand, who studies animal migrations. "They're doing something rather precise. They're actively and deliberately navigating within some sort of external reference frame."

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12:01am

Wed April 20, 2011
Around the Nation

Indie Truckers: Keep Big Brother Out Of My Cab

Terry Button is a fifth-generation farmer from upstate New York who also works as a long-distance trucker, hauling hay and produce up and down the East Coast.

He's proud of his truck and likes it just the way it is. Inside, the cab is homey and low-tech, with a bed behind the two seats and a CB radio. There's no cruise control and no GPS telling him where to go.

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4:28pm

Tue April 5, 2011
Space

Plans For World's Most Powerful Rocket Unveiled

The private rocket company SpaceX says its next rocket will be the most powerful in the world.

The new rocket, called the Falcon Heavy, is designed to carry up to about twice as much weight as a NASA space shuttle can take to orbit. It's expected to be at the launchpad at the end of next year for its first flight, with the launch likely coming in 2013.

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk described his company's new rocket during a press conference in Washington, D.C. He says it will be able to take about 117,000 pounds to orbit.

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3:00pm

Sun March 13, 2011
Asia

Partial Meltdown Possible At Japan Nuke Plant

Little is known about the state of Japan's nuclear power plants, several of which sustained heavy damage in last Friday's earthquake. Officials think a partial meltdown may have occurred at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant.

11:57am

Wed March 9, 2011
Space

Space Shuttle Discovery Lands For Last Time

Originally published on Wed May 23, 2012 10:15 am

Credit John Raoux / AP

Space shuttle Discovery glided down to Earth for the very last time Wednesday.

Crowds gathered to watch the beloved workhorse of NASA's shuttle fleet roll to a stop on the runway at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

"And Houston, Discovery for the final time, wheel stop," Commander Steve Lindsey reported to Mission Control.

He thanked NASA workers for giving his crew "a perfect vehicle from start to finish on her final flight."

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