Nell Greenfieldboyce Nell Greenfieldboyce is a NPR science correspondent.
Nell Greenfieldboyce 2010
Stories By

Nell Greenfieldboyce

Doby Photography/NPR
Nell Greenfieldboyce 2010
Doby Photography/NPR

Nell Greenfieldboyce

Correspondent, Science Desk

Nell Greenfieldboyce is a NPR science correspondent.

With reporting focused on general science, NASA, and the intersection between technology and society, Greenfieldboyce has been on the science desk's technology beat since she joined NPR in 2005.

In that time Greenfieldboyce has reported on topics including the narwhals in Greenland, the ending of the space shuttle program, and the reasons why independent truckers don't want electronic tracking in their cabs.

Much of Greenfieldboyce's reporting reflects an interest in discovering how applied science and technology connects with people and culture. She has worked on stories spanning issues such as pet cloning, gene therapy, ballistics, and federal regulation of new technology.

Prior to NPR, Greenfieldboyce spent a decade working in print, mostly magazines including U.S. News & World Report and New Scientist.

A graduate of Johns Hopkins, earning her Bachelor's of Arts degree in social sciences and a Master's of Arts degree in science writing, Greenfieldboyce taught science writing for four years at the university. She was honored for her talents with the Evert Clark/Seth Payne Award for Young Science Journalists.

Story Archive

Wednesday

For Black drivers, a police officer's first 45 words are a sign of what's to come

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Monday

Scientists are studying police camera footage to understand why some car stops of Black men escalate and others don't. Hill Street Studios/Getty Images hide caption

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Hill Street Studios/Getty Images

For Black drivers, a police officer's first 45 words are a portent of what's to come

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Wednesday

This artist's impression shows a hazy sub-Neptune-sized planet recently observed with the James Webb Space Telescope. NASA/JPL-Caltech/R. Hurt (IPAC) hide caption

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NASA/JPL-Caltech/R. Hurt (IPAC)

The James Webb Space Telescope reveals a mysterious planet to be weirdly shiny

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Wednesday

An artist's impression of an aging star swelling up and beginning to engulf a planet, much like the Sun will do in about 5 billion years. K. Miller/R. Hurt (Caltech/IPAC) hide caption

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K. Miller/R. Hurt (Caltech/IPAC)

This star ate its own planet. Earth may share the same fate

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Thursday

About 6,500 mammal species live on Earth today. Credit from left to right: John Moore/Getty Images; Yoshikazu Tsuno/AFP via Getty Images; Koichi Kamoshida/Getty Images; Paula Bronstein/Getty Images Getty Images hide caption

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Getty Images

Welcome to the mammalverse: Scientists sequence DNA from 240 species around the world

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Monday

A piece of plastic debris that's been colonized by both costal barnacles (pink and striped) and a gooseneck barnacle from the open ocean. Linsey Haram/SERC Marine Invasions Lab hide caption

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Linsey Haram/SERC Marine Invasions Lab

This floating ocean garbage is home to a surprising amount of life from the coasts

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Thursday

Researchers used computer simulations of black holes and machine learning to generate a revised version (right) of the famous first image of a black hole that was released back in 2019 (left). Medeiros et al 2023 hide caption

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Medeiros et al 2023

Monday

NASA assigns astronauts to enter lunar orbit for the first time in decades

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Wednesday

An artist's vision of the first interstellar object discovered in the solar system, 'Oumuamua. ESA/Hubble, NASA, ESO, M. Kornmesser hide caption

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ESA/Hubble, NASA, ESO, M. Kornmesser

Scientists think they know why interstellar object 'Oumuamua moved so strangely

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Friday

IMPACTS mission researchers inside the research plane, monitoring weather data being collected by onboard instruments. Erica McNamee/NASA hide caption

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Erica McNamee/NASA

What scientists are hoping to learn by flying directly into snowstorms

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Friday

Macaques use stones as hammers to smash open food items like shellfish and nuts. Lydia V. Luncz hide caption

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Lydia V. Luncz

Stone flakes made by modern monkeys trigger big questions about early humans

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Saturday

This imagery from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope shows the debris blasted from the surface of Dimorphos 285 hours after NASA's DART spacecraft smashed into the asteroid's surface. NASA/ESA/STScI/Hubble hide caption

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NASA/ESA/STScI/Hubble

Astronomers still have their eyes on that asteroid NASA whacked

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Friday

A new study of ancient human remains finds that horse riding may have been common as early as 4,500 to 5,000 years ago. Alan Crowhurst/Getty Images hide caption

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Alan Crowhurst/Getty Images

Scientists find signs of horse riding in ancient human remains

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Wednesday

NASA made history by knocking an asteroid off course. Now, it's publishing the data

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Monday

IMPACTS mission researchers inside the research plane, monitoring weather data being collected by onboard instruments. Erica McNamee/NASA hide caption

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Erica McNamee/NASA

Scientists are flying into snowstorms to explore winter weather mysteries

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Thursday

This composite was made with images from NASA's Juno mission and shows the shadow on Jupiter cast by Io, one of its many moons. NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/Kevin M. Gill hide caption

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NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/Kevin M. Gill

Here's why Jupiter's tally of moons keeps going up and up

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Tuesday

Clouds of material funnel into a growing protostar, photographed in near-infrared light by the James Webb Space Telescope Observatory. NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI hide caption

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NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI

Monday

James Webb Space Telescope managers weigh whether to release its data right away

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Friday

This image shows purified particles of mpox virus, formerly called monkeypox. Viruses like these can be genetically altered in the lab in ways that might make them more dangerous. NIAID hide caption

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NIAID

When is it OK to make germs worse in a lab? It's a more relevant question than ever

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Thursday

Biologist Peter Wimberger holds an ice worm in the snow. Nell Greenfieldboyce/NPR hide caption

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Nell Greenfieldboyce/NPR

Meet the mysterious ice worms that live in mountaintop glaciers

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Tuesday

Stanford University/Getty Images

Zircon: The Keeper Of Earth's Time

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Friday

Scientists dig up biologist Gregor Mendel's body and sequence his DNA

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Gregor Johann Mendel (1822 - 1884) the priest and botanist whose work laid the foundation of the study of genetics. Hulton Archive/Getty Images/ Max Posner/NPR hide caption

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Hulton Archive/Getty Images/ Max Posner/NPR