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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The photo from aboard the Air Force's legendary U-2 spy plane shows the Chinese balloon. But where, exactly, was it taken? It's actually possible to answer that question using clues from the image. -
China's foreign ministry described the balloon as "a civilian airship" for meteorological research that had blown far off course by winds. The Pentagon suspects it's collecting sensitive information. On Friday, it was spotted flying over Kansas and Missouri. -
An overblown immune response could be killing a portion of the sick, and some doctors think that new treatments being tested could help at least some of those patients. -
Satellite imagery shared exclusively with NPR suggests that North Korea is moving ahead with plans to expand its capabilities.
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The Trump administration says not everyone needs a test, but experts say a strategy of broad testing and isolating the sick is our best way to solve this crisis. -
In Europe, with cases on the rise, researchers are learning more about the spread of the disease. For one, people experiencing mild symptoms appear to be able to spread the virus easily. -
The Pentagon is ending a controversial program to fund social science research. It's part of a shift from asking for academic advice toward building new weapons systems. -
Dyson's ideas often occupied a space between science fiction and science. He helped design, among other things, a nuclear reactor that could be safely operated "even in the hands of an idiot." -
The U.S. has reportedly begun patrols with the low-yield weapons, which it says are needed to counter Russia. Critics worry they increase the risk of nuclear war. -
As private companies race into orbit, some experts in satellite operations say there isn't enough public infrastructure to keep all the satellites safe.
