Rob Stein
Rob Stein is a correspondent and senior editor on NPR's science desk.
An award-winning science journalist with more than 30 years of experience, Stein mostly covers health and medicine. He tends to focus on stories that illustrate the intersection of science, health, politics, social trends, ethics, and federal science policy. He tracks genetics, stem cells, cancer research, women's health issues, and other science, medical, and health policy news.
Before NPR, Stein worked at The Washington Post for 16 years, first as the newspaper's science editor and then as a national health reporter. Earlier in his career, Stein spent about four years as an editor at NPR's science desk. Before that, he was a science reporter for United Press International (UPI) in Boston and the science editor of the international wire service in Washington.
Stein's work has been honored by many organizations, including the National Academy of Sciences, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Association for Cancer Research, and the Association of Health Care Journalists. He was twice part of NPR teams that won Peabody Awards.
Stein frequently represents NPR, speaking at universities, international meetings and other venues, including the University of Cambridge in Britain, the World Conference of Science Journalists in South Korea, and the Aspen Institute in Washington, DC.
Stein is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. He completed a journalism fellowship at the Harvard School of Public Health, a program in science and religion at the University of Cambridge, and a summer science writer's workshop at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Mass.
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An international team has put human cells into monkey embryos in hopes of finding new ways to produce organs for transplantation. But some ethicists still worry about how such research could go wrong. -
The variant known as B.1.1.7, which is more easily spread, was first identified in England last fall. Since then, it has spread quickly in the U.S.
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The answer, experts say, depends on how Americans behave in the next several weeks and how quickly vaccines get in arms.
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Many public health experts are now increasingly optimistic about how the pandemic is playing out in the U.S. Here's what they say we can expect for the rest of 2021.
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These structures made from living human cells are similar to human embryos at the stage when they implant in the womb. They allow scientists to research new ways to treat infertility.
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Scientists are spotting new coronavirus variants almost on a daily basis. So far public health experts are still most worried about three important ones.
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Gov. Gavin Newsom announced the plan on Friday as part of an effort to accelerate in-person learning across the state.
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Daily numbers of new cases are finally starting to wane, and hospitalizations are down slightly. But health care systems are still overburdened and another resurgence remains a threat.
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Mask-wearing hit an all-time high, but other COVID-19 precautions are less common now than last spring, a survey finds. Experts worry we're ill-prepared for the spread of more infectious new variants.
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Some public health experts hope the growing availability of faster, cheaper tests could lead to a new strategy of widespread testing — one that could finally get the pandemic under control.
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The U.S. has reached another dire landmark in its fight against COVID-19, surpassing 2 million confirmed cases on Wednesday.
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The CDC combines results of a test that spots people who are actively infected with results from another one that looks for antibodies.
