Ari Daniel
Ari Daniel is a reporter for NPR's Science desk where he covers global health and development.
Ari has always been drawn to science and the natural world. As a graduate student, Ari trained gray seal pups (Halichoerus grypus) for his Master's degree in animal behavior at the University of St. Andrews, and helped tag wild Norwegian killer whales (Orcinus orca) for his Ph.D. in biological oceanography at MIT and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. For more than a decade, as a science reporter and multimedia producer, Ari has interviewed a species he's better equipped to understand – Homo sapiens.
Over the years, Ari has reported across five continents on science topics ranging from astronomy to zooxanthellae. His radio pieces have aired on NPR, The World, Radiolab, Here & Now, and Living on Earth. Ari formerly worked as the Senior Digital Producer at NOVA where he helped oversee the production of the show's digital video content. He is a co-recipient of the AAAS Kavli Science Journalism Gold Award for his stories on glaciers and climate change in Greenland and Iceland.
In the fifth grade, Ari won the "Most Contagious Smile" award.
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As polio makes a comeback, Minda Dentler reflects on her life with the disease. Paralyzed as an infant in India, she's gone on to become a champion wheelchair triathlete and an immunization advocate.
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The Biden administration is allowing the shot to be given between layers of skin — a method that only requires a fifth of the full dose — in order to increase vaccinations and slow the outbreak.
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Global health meetings are often held in the West — and that's an obstacle for scientists, doctors and advocates from lower resource countries. Which means their voices aren't being heard.
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Countries in Africa, the Middle East and parts of Asia are counting more cases of vaccine-derived polio. Researchers are developing a new vaccine to try to end the spread of the wild type of virus.
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In the northern Ukrainian city of Chernihiv at least half a dozen hospitals have been damaged by Russian attacks. One had to close most of its departments and reduce operations to emergency cases.
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The COVID transmission link between animals and humans is growing stronger. In Hong Kong, officials discovered a local pet shop employee was infected with COVID by hamsters in the store.
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Legal fights over racial and partisan gerrymandering are intensifying and mathematicians think they can help. Specialists in geometry are training to become expert witnesses in redistricting cases around the country.
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Stephon Alexander once downplayed the connections he saw between jazz and physics, concerned that — as "the only black person" in his professional circle — his credibility would be questioned.
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Homeless young people can often be targets of theft and assault by homeless adults. Two 23-year-olds in Boston founded a new shelter to assure their peers are safe, warm, welcomed and supported.
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In the United Arab Emirates, a new ecology is emerging at a lake formed by desalinated water that's been pumped in from the Persian Gulf.