editor NPR Digital Services RSS Generator 0.94 Nell Greenfieldboyce is a NPR science correspondent. With reporting focused on general science, NASA, and the intersection between technology and society, Greenfieldboyce has been on the science desk's technology beat since she joined NPR in 2005. In that time Greenfieldboyce has reported on topics including the narwhals in Greenland, the ending of the space shuttle program, and the reasons why independent truckers don't want electronic tracking in their cabs. Much of Greenfieldboyce's reporting reflects an interest in discovering how applied science and technology connects with people and culture. She has worked on stories spanning issues such as pet cloning, gene therapy, ballistics, and federal regulation of new technology. Prior to NPR, Greenfieldboyce spent a decade working in print, mostly magazines including U.S. News & World Report and New Scientist . A graduate of Johns Hopkins, earning her Bachelor's of Arts degree in social sciences and a Master's of Arts degree in science NPR Digital Services RSS Generator 0.94 Nell Greenfieldboyce Thu, 12 Jan 2017 20:18:04 +0000 Nell Greenfieldboyce http://wmot.org Nell Greenfieldboyce Tying a knot can be tricky, just ask any kid who's struggling with shoelaces. And scientists have it even harder when they try to make knots using tiny molecules. Now, in the journal Science , a team of chemists say they've made a huge advance — manipulating molecules to create the tightest knot ever. "Historically, knotting and weaving have led to all kinds of breakthrough technologies," says David Leigh at the University of Manchester in the U.K., who notes that knots led to prehistoric innovations such as fishing nets and clothes. "Knots should be just as important at the molecular level, but we can't exploit that until we learn how to make them, and that's really what we're beginning to do." The first molecular knot was created by chemist Jean-Pierre Sauvage, one of three scientists who won last year's Nobel Prize in Chemistry for work in creating parts for future molecular machines. His knot had loops that made it look a bit like a three-leaf clover. This "trefoil knot" is the Scientists Have Twisted Molecules Into The Tightest Knot Ever http://wmot.org/post/scientists-have-twisted-molecules-tightest-knot-ever 75744 as http://wmot.org Thu, 12 Jan 2017 19:06:00 +0000 Scientists Have Twisted Molecules Into The Tightest Knot Ever Nell Greenfieldboyce Menopause is a mystery to evolutionary biologists, but new insights could come from a long-term study of killer whales. In these whales, the explanation may lie in a combination of conflict and cooperation between older and younger females, according to a report published Thursday in the journal Current Biology. Killer whales are one of only three species known to have menopause — the others are pilot whales and humans. Researchers have long wondered why it was that these few species evolved to have females that spend so much of their lives unable to have babies. Killer whales start reproducing around age 15, but stop having calves in their 30s or 40s, even though they can live for around a century. A team led by behavioral ecologist Darren Croft of the University of Exeter decided to search for answers with the help of an unusual long-term study of killer whales in the Pacific Northwest. There, since the 1970s, researchers have carefully collected information on the births and deaths Menopause Mystery: Why Do Female Killer Whales Experience The Change Of Life? http://wmot.org/post/menopause-mystery-why-do-female-killer-whales-experience-change-life 75740 as http://wmot.org Thu, 12 Jan 2017 17:02:00 +0000 Menopause Mystery: Why Do Female Killer Whales Experience The Change Of Life? Nell Greenfieldboyce Terrorist attacks, hurricanes, a divisive U.S. election, Brexit — 2016 has not been easy. With the year coming to an end, we thought it was time to get some serious perspective — from the scale of the entire universe. We're tackling big questions: what scientists know, and what they have yet to learn. So before you ring in another year, take a moment to contemplate the billions of years that led to 2017 and the billions more yet to come. Where did the universe come from? "That happens to be my absolute favorite question," says Chuck Bennett , an astrophysicist at Johns Hopkins University. He points out that the big-bang theory says the universe started out dense and hot, and that it has been expanding and cooling for 13.8 billion years, but, he says, "the big-bang theory doesn't actually say what happened right at the beginning." You can follow our laws of physics back in time, he says, but they break down close to the start, when things were unspeakably fiery and close together. Still As A Rough Year Ends, We Turn To The Cosmos For Some Perspective http://wmot.org/post/rough-year-ends-we-turn-cosmos-some-perspective 74940 as http://wmot.org Fri, 30 Dec 2016 11:00:00 +0000 As A Rough Year Ends, We Turn To The Cosmos For Some Perspective Nell Greenfieldboyce The holiday season is a time when lots of people take to the air, flying to see relatives or go on vacation. But when it comes to seasonal travel, humans are totally outnumbered by insects. That's according to a newly published study in the journal Science , which found that more than 3 trillion migrating insects fly over south-central England each year. "If you were to repeat this study almost anywhere else, I guarantee that you would exceed those numbers," says Jason Chapman , an entomologist at the University of Exeter, who notes that England is relatively cold and damp. Except for standouts such as the monarch butterfly , migrating insects have mostly been ignored by scientists who study migration, who tend to focus on charismatic birds like the Arctic tern and mammals such as the wildebeests of the Serengeti. "The insects have really not been studied in the way that they should have been," Chapman says. He points out that migrating insects can cause huge problems or bring real Bugs Abound: If You Think The Skies Are Crowded, You Have No Idea http://wmot.org/post/bugs-abound-if-you-think-skies-are-crowded-you-have-no-idea 74569 as http://wmot.org Thu, 22 Dec 2016 20:13:00 +0000 Bugs Abound: If You Think The Skies Are Crowded, You Have No Idea Nell Greenfieldboyce In a technological tour de force, scientists have developed a new way to probe antimatter. For the first time, researchers were able to zap antimatter atoms with a laser, then precisely measure the light let off by these strange anti-atoms. By comparing the light from anti-atoms with the light from regular atoms, they hope to answer one of the big mysteries of our universe: Why, in the early universe, did antimatter lose out to regular old matter? "This represents a historic point in the decades-long efforts to create antimatter and compare its properties to those of matter," says Alan Kostelecky , a theoretical physicist at Indiana University. Antimatter sounds like something out of science fiction. "The first time I heard about antimatter was on Star Trek , when I was a kid," says Jeffrey Hangst , a physicist at Aarhus University in Denmark. "I was intrigued by what it was and then kind of shocked to learn that it was a real thing in physics." He founded a research group called ALPHA Scientists Blast Antimatter Atoms With A Laser For The First Time http://wmot.org/post/scientists-blast-antimatter-atoms-laser-first-time 74413 as http://wmot.org Mon, 19 Dec 2016 16:30:00 +0000 Scientists Blast Antimatter Atoms With A Laser For The First Time Nell Greenfieldboyce If you could change the way a monkey or an ape's brain is wired, that animal would be capable of producing perfectly intelligible speech. That's the conclusion of a study that closely tracked the movements of a monkey's mouth and throat with X-rays, to understand the full potential of its vocal tract . Researchers then used that information to create a computer model of what it would sound like if the monkey were able to say phrases such as "happy holidays." The finding calls into question long-held assumptions about how humans developed their unique ability to use spoken language. "What you'll find in the textbooks is that monkeys can't talk because they don't have the appropriate vocal tract to do so," says Tecumseh Fitch , a cognitive biologist at the University of Vienna. "That, I think, is a myth. My colleagues and I all get very tired of seeing this. But you see it in all the textbooks. Lots of popular books, and also scholarly books about the evolution of language, assume that Say, What? Monkey Mouths And Throats Are Equipped For Speech http://wmot.org/post/say-what-monkey-mouths-and-throats-are-equipped-speech 73923 as http://wmot.org Fri, 09 Dec 2016 19:01:00 +0000 Say, What? Monkey Mouths And Throats Are Equipped For Speech Nell Greenfieldboyce The surprise find of smallpox DNA in a child mummy from the 17th century could help scientists start to trace the mysterious history of this notorious virus. Smallpox currently only exists in secure freezers, after a global vaccination campaign eradicated the virus in the late 1970s. But much about this killer remains unknown, including its origins. Now scientists have the oldest complete set of smallpox genes, after they went hunting for viral DNA in a sample of skin from a mummified young child, probably a boy, that was found in a crypt underneath a Lithuanian church. "While ancient pathogen research is kind of a booming field right now, most of what's been done is actually bacterial. There's very little viral work," says Ana Duggan , a researcher at McMaster University in Canada, who explains that the original goal of this study was just to see what kind of viruses might be detectable in this centuries-old sample. The team was not expecting to find smallpox, but there it was — even A Mummy's DNA May Help Solve The Mystery Of The Origins Of Smallpox http://wmot.org/post/mummys-dna-may-help-solve-mystery-origins-smallpox 73886 as http://wmot.org Thu, 08 Dec 2016 17:24:00 +0000 A Mummy's DNA May Help Solve The Mystery Of The Origins Of Smallpox Nell Greenfieldboyce President-elect Donald Trump intends to nominate Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt to head the Environmental Protection Agency, announcing his decision in a statement Thursday. As attorney general, Pruitt has made no secret of his disdain for the EPA. His official biography calls him "a leading advocate against the EPA's activist agenda." He has repeatedly challenged the agency's rules in court, and he has even sued the EPA for an allegedly cozy "sue and settle" relationship with environmentalists. One profile noted that Pruitt would sue the federal government "every chance he can get." Pruitt, who met with Trump Thursday morning at Trump Tower in New York, has been an ardent defender of fossil fuels and the coal industry. The New York Times has reported that one letter to the EPA from Pruitt was ghostwritten by lawyers for Devon Energy, an Oklahoma oil and gas company. He spent eight years in Oklahoma's Senate before being elected state attorney general in 2010. In that role, he Trump Picks Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt To Lead EPA http://wmot.org/post/trump-reportedly-picks-oklahoma-attorney-general-scott-pruitt-lead-epa 73834 as http://wmot.org Wed, 07 Dec 2016 20:31:00 +0000 Trump Picks Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt To Lead EPA Nell Greenfieldboyce When a robotic probe finally lands on a watery world like Jupiter's moon Europa , what do scientists have to see to definitively say whether the place has any life? That's the question retired astronaut John Grunsfeld posed to some colleagues at NASA when he was in charge of the agency's science missions. "We looked at him with blank faces," recalls Jim Green , head of NASA's planetary sciences division. "What do we need to build to really find life? What are the instruments, what are the techniques, what are the things that we should be looking for?" To get some advice, the agency recently asked the prestigious National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine to gather some of the top experts in astrobiology for a meeting that begins Monday. There's a growing interest in so-called biosignatures — or substances that provide evidence of life — because NASA has upcoming missions that have real potential to search for them. Those include a visit to Europa in the 2020s and the If You're Looking For Alien Life, How Will You Know If You've Found it? http://wmot.org/post/if-youre-looking-alien-life-how-will-you-know-if-youve-found-it 73714 as http://wmot.org Mon, 05 Dec 2016 10:03:00 +0000 If You're Looking For Alien Life, How Will You Know If You've Found it? Nell Greenfieldboyce Around the corner from the famous Diamond District in New York City, David Weinstein sorts through some envelopes on his cluttered desk. All of them are full of diamonds. "I deal with diamonds all day long, for three decades," says Weinstein, executive director of the International Gemological Institute , a commercial testing laboratory. "To me, diamonds aren't anything spectacular. It's hard to get me to say, 'Wow!' " But lately he has been impressed by certain diamonds — those created in the lab. "These are all laboratory-grown," he says, unwrapping diamonds and lining them up inside a folded piece of white paper. Under a bright light, he points out how colorless they are, and how, to the naked eye, they're indistinguishable from diamonds that took millions of years to form deep within the earth. Would-be diamond-makers have spent about half a century learning how to churn out big, sparkly diamonds like these. And it wasn't easy. Back in the old days, Weinstein would rarely see lab Lab-Grown Diamonds Come Into Their Own http://wmot.org/post/lab-grown-diamonds-come-their-own 73541 as http://wmot.org Thu, 01 Dec 2016 15:40:00 +0000 Lab-Grown Diamonds Come Into Their Own Nell Greenfieldboyce Copyright 2016 NPR. To see more, visit ARI SHAPIRO, HOST: If you're looking for a way to stay young, you might want to try living out the rest of your life in the dark, frigid waters of the Arctic. You will also need to become a Greenland shark. Scientists have discovered this species can live for about 400 years and maybe even longer, as we hear in this encore report from NPR's Nell Greenfieldboyce. NELL GREENFIELDBOYCE, BYLINE: The first time Julius Nielsen ever saw Greenland shark, he was working on a research vessel that was studying other Arctic fish. JULIUS NIELSEN: One day we, by accident, caught a Greenland shark. It was a really a big one, and everyone went up and saw this interesting animal. GREENFIELDBOYCE: It looked different than a great white shark, but it had the shark fins and big teeth. Nielsen was intrigued. NIELSEN: You don't really expect sharks to be swimming around between icebergs and things like that. GREENFIELDBOYCE: He soon learned that scientists know almost Encore: Scientists Discover Centuries-Long Lifespan Of Greenland Shark http://wmot.org/post/encore-scientists-discover-centuries-long-lifespan-greenland-shark 73430 as http://wmot.org Mon, 28 Nov 2016 23:28:00 +0000 Encore: Scientists Discover Centuries-Long Lifespan Of Greenland Shark Nell Greenfieldboyce The good news for those worried that the U.S. will lose its leadership role in confronting climate change: President-elect Donald Trump said Tuesday , "I have an open mind to it. ... I do have an open mind." At a meeting Tuesday with New York Times journalists and executives, Trump said he thinks "there is some connectivity" in terms of human activity causing climate change. However, he went on to say that "it depends on how much" connectivity. "It also depends on how much it's going to cost our companies. You have to understand, our companies are noncompetitive right now." Then he noted that he also finds the climate issue interesting because "there are few things where there's more division than climate change." Climate researchers would not agree, at least when it comes to the science. Despite what contrarians maintain, the overwhelming scientific consensus is that human activity is warming the planet, with potentially devastating effects to the environment. And the United Nations Trump Says He Has 'Open Mind' On Climate, But Staff Pick Raises Questions http://wmot.org/post/trump-says-he-has-open-mind-climate-staff-pick-raises-questions 73197 as http://wmot.org Wed, 23 Nov 2016 19:32:00 +0000 Trump Says He Has 'Open Mind' On Climate, But Staff Pick Raises Questions Nell Greenfieldboyce A rusty-brown rock found on a beach by a fossil hunter might contain a bit of preserved dinosaur brain. If so, it would be the first time scientists have ever found fossilized brain tissue from a dinosaur. The fossil comes from a species closely related to Iguanodon , a large herbivore that lived about 130 million years ago. A collector named Jamie Hiscocks found it in 2004, near Bexhill in the United Kingdom. "He picked it up and noticed that it was slightly unusual in its shape and its texture," says Alex Liu of the University of Cambridge. "There's a series of bumps to this specimen that are quite characteristic of it fitting into the brain case of a dinosaur." This kind of fossil gets made when sediment fills up a dinosaur's skull cavity and hardens. Later, if the skull breaks off and disappears, what's left behind is a solid object that reveals the shape of the skull's inner cavity. What's different about this particular example, Liu says, is that the outer millimeter or so of Researchers Say They've Found A Bit Of Fossilized Dinosaur Brain http://wmot.org/post/researchers-say-theyve-found-bit-fossilized-dinosaur-brain 71777 as http://wmot.org Thu, 27 Oct 2016 17:19:00 +0000 Researchers Say They've Found A Bit Of Fossilized Dinosaur Brain Nell Greenfieldboyce http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3N0FY-fe_hA When scientists recently announced that they had discovered a new planet orbiting our closest stellar neighbor, Proxima Centuri, they also released an artist's conception of the planet. The picture of a craggy canyon, illuminated by a reddish-orange sunset, looked like an image that could have been taken on Mars by one of NASA's rovers. But the alien scene was actually completely made-up. It's part of an ever-increasing gallery of images depicting real planets beyond our solar system that, in fact, no one has ever seen. Astronomers detect these planets by looking for how a planet's gravity tugs on its star, or how a planet blocks a star's light. Over the last two decades, they've used these techniques to detect thousands of planets. Creating popular images to show what the planets might look like has become something of a cottage industry. The artists say this work can drive home the idea that these planets truly exist — but, still, some Out Of This World: How Artists Imagine Planets Yet Unseen http://wmot.org/post/out-world-how-artists-imagine-planets-yet-unseen 71608 as http://wmot.org Mon, 24 Oct 2016 09:03:00 +0000 Out Of This World: How Artists Imagine Planets Yet Unseen Nell Greenfieldboyce On Election Day this November, about 1 in 4 Americans will vote using a device that never lets the voter see a copy of his or her vote on paper. The idea of relying on such machines has troubled some security experts for years. And this year the stakes may be even higher, because one candidate is charging that the election is rigged , and government officials have warned that state election systems have been targeted by foreign hackers with ties to Russia. Five states exclusively use voting machines that lack the kind of independent paper trail needed to do a convincing recount, according to a nonprofit, nonpartisan group called Verified Voting . Those states are New Jersey, Delaware, Georgia, Louisiana and South Carolina. "And then there are another nine states that have paperless voting machines in some jurisdictions," says Pamela Smith , president of Verified Voting. In Pennsylvania, considered a battleground state, those machines are used in a majority of counties. "On a scale of Why Worries About Paperless Voting Loom Larger This Year http://wmot.org/post/why-worries-about-paperless-voting-loom-larger-year 71332 as http://wmot.org Tue, 18 Oct 2016 17:55:00 +0000 Why Worries About Paperless Voting Loom Larger This Year Nell Greenfieldboyce On Friday, the Rosetta spacecraft will smack into the icy surface of the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko and go silent. Scientists with the historic mission are wondering how they'll feel as the orbiter makes its death-dive toward the comet that has been its traveling companion for more than two years. "There's mixed emotions here," says Matt Taylor of the European Space Agency, who is the project scientist for Rosetta. "You know, people have invested their lives and their mentality, I think, as well — their psychology — on this mission. I really couldn't tell you what I'm going to feel." Mission controllers in Darmstadt, Germany, will command the spacecraft to do a specific maneuver on Thursday evening that will put it on a collision course with the comet. "From that point," Taylor says, "it's free fall, effectively." The whole way down, the spacecraft will be collecting data and images that it will stream back to Earth in real time. "And as soon as any one part of that spacecraft Scientists To Bid A Bittersweet Farewell To Rosetta, The Comet Chaser http://wmot.org/post/scientists-bid-bittersweet-farewell-rosetta-comet-chaser 70410 as http://wmot.org Thu, 29 Sep 2016 13:15:00 +0000 Scientists To Bid A Bittersweet Farewell To Rosetta, The Comet Chaser Nell Greenfieldboyce Scientists have seen what might be plumes of water vapor erupting out of the icy surface of Jupiter's moon Europa, suggesting that its subsurface ocean could be probed without having to drill through miles of ice. That's according to new findings from images captured by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope that were released Monday and that will be published this week in The Astrophysical Journal . Europa is one of the most intriguing places in the solar system because it's thought to have a vast subterranean ocean with twice as much water as Earth's oceans. This saltwater ocean is a tempting target for astrobiologists who want to find places beyond Earth that could support life. The trouble with exploring this ocean is that the water is hidden beneath an icy crust that's miles thick. But if plumes are indeed erupting from Europa, a spacecraft could potentially fly through them and analyze their chemistry — much like NASA's Cassini probe did recently when it sped close to Enceladus , a moon NASA Spots What May Be Plumes Of Water On Jupiter's Moon Europa http://wmot.org/post/nasa-spots-what-may-be-plumes-water-jupiters-moon-europa 70307 as http://wmot.org Mon, 26 Sep 2016 20:33:00 +0000 NASA Spots What May Be Plumes Of Water On Jupiter's Moon Europa Nell Greenfieldboyce A mysterious glowing "blob" in outer space has puzzled astronomers for more than 15 years. Now, a team of researchers says it has uncovered the secret behind the blob's eerie light. The blob was first spotted back in the late 1990s by Chuck Steidel , an astronomer at Caltech, and some colleagues. They were observing a bunch of galaxies in the distant reaches of the universe, he recalls, "but we also saw these big blotchy things." At first, they thought they had somehow accidentally screwed up the images. But then they realized they had actually discovered strange, glowing clouds of hydrogen gas. They were huge — about 10 times the Milky Way in diameter — making them some of the largest known objects in the universe. Steidel's team named these mysterious objects Lyman-alpha blobs. The "Lyman-alpha" part of the name just refers to the wavelength of light they emit. And the "blob" part was supposed to be tongue-in-cheek, says Steidel, "like the blob from outer space or something like that Astronomers Find Clues In The Case Of The Glowing Space 'Blobs' http://wmot.org/post/astronomers-find-clues-case-glowing-space-blobs 70105 as http://wmot.org Wed, 21 Sep 2016 10:01:00 +0000 Astronomers Find Clues In The Case Of The Glowing Space 'Blobs' Nell Greenfieldboyce NASA sent a robotic spacecraft from Florida out to an asteroid Thursday, but that's not the only asteroid mission the space agency has in the works. Officials also want to study a different asteroid with the help of astronauts. And it looks like the next president, plus Congress, will have to decide whether this human mission to a flying rock should ever get off the ground. The idea of visiting an asteroid goes back to 2010, when President Obama went to Kennedy Space Center in Florida to lay out his new plan for space exploration. He said he wanted astronauts to eventually land on Mars, and that the first steps would be to send astronauts out beyond the moon. "We'll start by sending astronauts to an asteroid, for the first time in history," he told the NASA workers. "By the mid-2030s, I believe we can send humans to orbit Mars and return them safely to Earth. And a landing on Mars will follow." The trouble is, flying people to an asteroid turned out to be really hard. The trip would NASA's Other Asteroid Mission: Grab A Chunk And Put It In Orbit Around The Moon http://wmot.org/post/nasas-other-asteroid-mission-grab-chunk-and-put-it-orbit-around-moon 69542 as http://wmot.org Fri, 09 Sep 2016 14:36:00 +0000 NASA's Other Asteroid Mission: Grab A Chunk And Put It In Orbit Around The Moon Nell Greenfieldboyce Most populations of humpback whales no longer need endangered species protections, according to a decision by the National Marine Fisheries Service. The U.S. government listed all humpback whales as endangered back in 1970, after commercial whaling had drastically reduced their numbers. But now, officials say they have divided humpback whales into 14 distinct populations. And after a scientific review, they say that nine of those populations have recovered enough that they no longer need to be considered endangered. "We believe that we have conducted a very thorough scientific assessment," says Angela Somma , chief of the endangered species division at the agency, also known as NOAA Fisheries. "Most of the humpback populations have increased and increased substantially from where they were." Whales that are still considered endangered include populations in Central America, off northwest Africa, in the Arabian Sea and in the western north Pacific. And a population near Mexico is listed Most Humpback Whales Taken Off Endangered Species List http://wmot.org/post/most-humpback-whales-taken-endangered-species-list 69453 as http://wmot.org Wed, 07 Sep 2016 16:59:00 +0000 Most Humpback Whales Taken Off Endangered Species List