Rae Ellen Bichell
Rae Ellen Bichell is a reporter for NPR's Science Desk. She first came to NPR in 2013 as a Kroc fellow and has since reported Web and radio stories on biomedical research, global health, and basic science. She won a 2016 Michael E. DeBakey Journalism Award from the Foundation for Biomedical Research. After graduating from Yale University, she spent two years in Helsinki, Finland, as a freelance reporter and Fulbright grantee.
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Scientists were worried about Zika at the 2016 Olympics in Brazil. But a recent study found there was no evidence of the virus in athletes and staff. They did, however, find other viruses. -
The number of cases has prompted a ban on public gatherings — and concern from the World Health Organization. The disease is spreading in cities and has claimed 30 lives so far. -
Coloradans can get arrested for driving while stoned. But with no good roadside tools, officers' determinations are more subjective than for alcohol DUIs. Scientists hope to find chemical markers. -
The words "strong" and "inspiring" are not usually assigned to garden slugs. But slug slime inspired materials scientists to invent a new kind of adhesive that could one day help heal human wounds. -
NASA plans to send people to the Red Planet in the 2030s. In the meantime, a remote location in southern Utah serves as a non-NASA training ground for the Mars-minded. -
People are dumping corpses in the high desert of western Colorado. But those unloading bodies aren't criminal masterminds. They're scientists. And out here, the usual rules of human decay don't apply. -
In medieval times, they called it "the black death." It's still around, routinely cropping up in the U.S. This time, the New Mexico Department of Health reports three cases. -
Twenty years. That's how long two grad students, Sonia Vallabh and Eric Minikel, think they have before a deadly disease envelops Sonia's brain. The Massachusetts couple is now racing to find a cure. -
Sonia Vallabh knows that by the time she's middle-aged, a rare inherited disease will likely start killing off her brain cells. She and her husband have become scientists to try to stop the disease. -
The small spacecraft is set to hurtle toward the sun at about 450,000 miles per hour. Scientists hope it will clear up some big mysteries, such as why the sun's atmosphere is hotter than its surface.
