Dan Charles
Dan Charles is an independent writer and radio producer who contributes regularly to NPR's technology coverage. He is currently filling in temporarily as an editor on the National Desk, responsible for coverage of the environment and the western United States. He is author of Master Mind: The Rise and Fall of Fritz Haber, the Nobel Laureate Who Launched the Age of Chemical Warfare (Ecco, 2005). He also wrote Lords of the Harvest: Biotech, Big Money, and the Future of Food (Perseus, 2001), about the making of genetically engineered crops. From 1993 to 1999, Charles was a technology correspondent for NPR. Charles covers a wide swath of advanced technology, including telecommunications, energy, agriculture, computers, and biotechnology. He's reported for NPR from India, Russia, Mexico, and various parts of Western Europe. Before joining NPR, Charles was a U.S. correspondent for New Scientist, a major British science magazine.
He studied economics and international affairs at American University, graduating magna cum laude in 1982. In 1982-83, he studied in Bonn, West Germany, under a scholarship from the German Academic Exchange Service. He was a guest researcher at the Institute for Peace Research and Security Policy at the University of Hamburg, Germany, in 1986. In 1989-90, he was a Knight Science Journalism fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
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Some researchers have found that vegetables like broccoli have fewer good-for-you nutrients like calcium and zinc than they used to. But a new study says that genetics — what plant breeders control — probably isn't the major factor determining nutrient levels.
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In farm communities, there are mixed feelings on conservation payments. Farmer Don Teske, of Wheaton, Kansas, says "the perception is that you're being paid to do nothing." They don't want to be park rangers, they want to farm.
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A new study looks at whether we can feed the world without destroying the Earth. The answer is yes, but how to make it happen is complicated, and will require big changes in the way we practice agriculture.
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Prices for American farmland have doubled in the past few years. Does that make it a bubble? Or is there a good reason for the rise in prices?
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A jumping gene called "Hopscotch" rejiggered corn's ancestor, teosinte, so instead of bushy branches, the plant started producing one strong central stalk, much like today's modern corn.
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In sub-Saharan Africa, where agricultural productivity is lowest and food shortages are most common, "huge volumes of rainwater are lost or never used," says Alain Vidal, director of the Challenge Program on Water and Food, which commissioned the studies.
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The book The Town That Food Saved put Hardwick and its local food community on the map. But small farms can translate to prices too high for many customers. So farmers are focusing on efficiency and new ways to broaden the appeal of local fare.
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Dengue fever has returned to Iquitos, Peru. Researchers are studying the disease's migration by tracking mosquitoes and taking health surveys of the community. They're hoping the city-size experiment will help them understand what works best to stop the disease from spreading.
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Japan's Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant hasn't been rocked by major incident in a couple of days. But the situation hasn't really improved, either. Are we in a "race against time," as the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog put it, or can we start to breathe easier as time goes on? The answer seems to be: It depends.
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About 6 percent of the fuel in reactor No. 3 at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant in Japan is made of a "mixed-oxide" fuel, which contains plutonium — which stays hazardous for tens of thousands of years --as well as uranium. But it does not significantly add to the dangers, officials say.