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.
-
The federal government says that as of Aug. 1, all laboratories must include detailed demographic data when reporting test results in order to help fight the pandemic nationally.
-
Protests over George Floyd's death continue sweeping across the U.S., creating new dangers. Public health experts fear the coronavirus could begin erupting in new outbreaks around the country.
-
Antibody Testing Is Increasing, But A Positive Result Doesn't Prove ImmunityAs more people get tested for antibodies to the coronavirus, fears rise that they'll let down their guard mistakenly believing antibodies guarantee protection.
-
As more and more people get tested for antibodies to the coronavirus, infectious disease specialists worry that those tested — and their employers — may not understand the limits of the results.
-
The Food And Drug Administration is raising concerns about the accuracy of the Abbott ID Now Coronavirus test, which returns results within 15 minutes. The FDA worries about false negative results.
-
An antigen test could be quick, and much simpler and cheaper than the PCR tests now used to spot people infected with the novel coronavirus. But some scientists worry about an antigen test's accuracy.
-
Thursday night's coronavirus task force briefing included preliminary research on how the virus responds to sunlight and heat. NPR's science and White House correspondents contextualize those claims.
-
The Wall Street Journal immigration reporter Michelle Hackman and an NPR science correspondent talk about the latest executive order to suspend immigration and answer various listener questions.
-
An NPR science correspondent answers listener questions about testing for COVID-19, immunity and how testing capacity affects plans to reopen the country.
-
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Robert Redfield outlined the agency's "contact tracing" strategy in an interview with NPR, as states scramble to prepare for reopening.