
Geoff Brumfiel
Geoff Brumfiel works as a senior editor and correspondent on NPR's science desk. His editing duties include science and space, while his reporting focuses on the intersection of science and national security.
From April of 2016 to September of 2018, Brumfiel served as an editor overseeing basic research and climate science. Prior to that, he worked for three years as a reporter covering physics and space for the network. Brumfiel has carried his microphone into ghost villages created by the Fukushima nuclear accident in Japan. He's tracked the journey of highly enriched uranium as it was shipped out of Poland. For a story on how animals drink, he crouched for over an hour and tried to convince his neighbor's cat to lap a bowl of milk.
Before NPR, Brumfiel was based in London as a senior reporter for Nature Magazine from 2007-2013. There, he covered energy, space, climate, and the physical sciences. From 2002 – 2007, Brumfiel was Nature Magazine's Washington Correspondent.
Brumfiel is the 2013 winner of the Association of British Science Writers award for news reporting on the Fukushima nuclear accident.
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A giant laser facility in Livermore, Calif., says it has created net energy from nuclear fusion. It's an important breakthrough, but fusion power remains a distant dream.
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A NASA spacecraft passing by the moon on Monday is carrying 12,000 varieties of yeast. Researchers hope the tiny "yeastronauts" can teach them about how radiation will affect humans in space.
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New research shows that a type of primate known as an aye-aye loves picking its nose. Researchers say the findings raise interesting questions about why nose-picking is such a common behavior.
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NASA says its mission to knock an asteroid off course — a test of planetary defense — succeeded beyond its expectations.
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Operations at Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant were fully stopped on Sunday as a safety precaution. Russia and Ukraine are accusing each other of shelling the plant.
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Inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency arrive today at the troubled Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant to assess damage and establish safety and security conditions.
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Conditions at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in Ukraine are deteriorating as international monitors are hoping to visit the facility in the coming days.
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Scientists have recorded a song coming from a volcano. They think the musical notes may someday be useful for predicting dangerous eruptions. (Story aired on All Things Considered on June 6, 2022.)
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For decades, U.S. astronauts and Russian cosmonauts have lived side-by-side aboard the International Space Station. Now some are wondering whether that partnership can withstand the war in Ukraine.
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An NPR analysis of security footage and photos following the attack on Europe's largest nuclear power plant shows that many of the plant's critical safety systems were in the field of Russian fire.