Rob Stein Rob Stein is a Correspondent and Senior Editor on NPR's Science Desk.
Rob Stein, photographed for NPR, 22 January 2020, in Washington DC.
Stories By

Rob Stein

Mike Morgan/NPR
Rob Stein, photographed for NPR, 22 January 2020, in Washington DC.
Mike Morgan/NPR

Rob Stein

Correspondent and Senior Editor, Science Desk

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 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'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 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.

Story Archive

Monday

Two scientists win Nobel Prize for research that led to COVID-19 vaccines

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Secretary-General of the Nobel Assembly Thomas Perlmann speaks in front of a picture of Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman, winners of the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm on Monday. JONATHAN NACKSTRAND/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

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JONATHAN NACKSTRAND/AFP via Getty Images

Nobel Prize goes to scientists who made mRNA COVID vaccines possible

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Friday

Americans are urged to get vaccinated against 3 major respiratory viruses

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Thursday

Katsuhiko Hayashi, a developmental geneticist at Osaka University, is working on ways to make what he calls "artificial" eggs and sperm from any cell in the human body. Kosuke Okahara for NPR hide caption

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Kosuke Okahara for NPR

Japanese scientists race to create human eggs and sperm in the lab

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Wednesday

A reproduction revolution is on the horizon: vitro gametogenesis or IVG

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Friday

Experts say the new COVID boosters are a much closer match to currently circulating variants than prior vaccines and boosters. JEFF KOWALSKY/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

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JEFF KOWALSKY/AFP via Getty Images

Everything you need to know about the latest COVID booster

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Thursday

What to know about the new COVID-19 booster

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Wednesday

Experts say the new COVID boosters are a much closer match to currently circulating variants than prior vaccines and boosters. Frederick J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

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Frederick J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images

The new COVID boosters are coming: Here's what you need to know

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Tuesday

New COVID-19 vaccines received the backing of a panel of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Tuesday. The shots will be available across the country later this week. Mario Tama/Getty Images hide caption

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Mario Tama/Getty Images

CDC advisers back broad rollout of new COVID boosters

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Monday

Another round of COVID-19 vaccines is on the way. The Food and Drug Administration approved vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna that target an omicron subvariant called XBB.1.5. Vaccination campaigns, like this one in San Rafael, Calif., in 2022, could resume soon. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images hide caption

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Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

New COVID vaccines get FDA approval

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The Food and Drug Administration is poised to approve new COVID boosters

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Wednesday

Lab data suggests new COVID booster will protect against worrisome variant

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Tuesday

Lab data suggests the new COVID-19 booster shots should protect against a variant that concerns scientists. The boosters should be widely available this fall at pharmacies, like the one seen in the Flatbush neighborhood of Brooklyn borough in New York City. Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images hide caption

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Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images

Lab data suggests new COVID booster will protect against worrisome variant

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Friday

The latest on COVID: Labor Day weekend, possible boosters and vaccines this fall

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Saturday

When people listen to the same song, their brain waves can synchronize. It's one way that music creates a sense of connection and wonder. BlackJack3D/Getty Images hide caption

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These scientists explain the power of music to spark awe

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Friday

Hospitalizations for COVID-19 are ticking up. But even if illnesses keep rising, it appears unlikely that they will hit previous summer peaks. EMS-Forster-Productions/Getty Images hide caption

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Thursday

Yet another summer COVID wave may have started in the U.S., according to the CDC

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Tuesday

Saturday

Conception's chief scientific officer, Pablo Hurtado, examines very early primordial germ cells under a microscope in a company lab in Berkeley, California. Laura Morton for NPR hide caption

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Laura Morton for NPR

Startup aims to make lab-grown human eggs, transforming options for creating families

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Wednesday

Biomedical startups are racing to revolutionize the way humans reproduce

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Thursday

The Food and Drug Administration approved the first gene therapy to treat the most common form of muscular dystrophy. Sarah Silbiger/Getty Images hide caption

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Muscular dystrophy patients get first gene therapy

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Saturday

A clinician prepares cells for in vitro fertilization, or IVF, the treatment for infertility. In the future, it could be joined by IVG, in vitro gametogenesis, a new process that could turn any cell first into a stem cell and then into a sperm or egg cell. Lluis Gene/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

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Lluis Gene/AFP via Getty Images

Creating a sperm or egg from any cell? Reproduction revolution on the horizon

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Thursday

Scientists near a breakthrough that could revolutionize human reproduction

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Friday

Advisers to the FDA support approval of an RSV vaccine to protect infants

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