Rae Ellen Bichell Rae Bichell is a reporter for NPR's Science Desk.
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Rae Ellen Bichell
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Wednesday
When Caitlin Wells Salerno and Jon Salerno's first son, Hank, was born, his delivery cost the family only $30. Gus' bill came in at more than $16,000, all told — including the $2,755 ER charge. The family was responsible for about $3,600 of the total. Rae Ellen Bichell/KHN hide caption
A hospital hiked the price of a routine childbirth by calling it an 'emergency'
Monday
A Hospital Charged More Than $700 For Each Push Of Medicine Through Her IV
Wednesday
The Joy Of Receiving A COVID-19 Vaccine In A Nursing Home
Saturday
Colorado City Eyes Solution To Local News Desert: Libraries
Monday
Researchers Examine Altitude's Role In Depression And Suicide
Sunday
Beer archaeologist Travis Rupp inspects his latest "Ale of Antiquity," George Washington Porter, surrounded by the oak barrels it fermented in at Avery Brewing Co. in Boulder, Colo. Dustin Hall/The Brewtography Project hide caption
Wednesday
Friday
Children get their diphtheria inoculation in 1944. Kurt Hutton/Getty Images hide caption
Wednesday
Employees from Ivory Coast's health ministry raid a shop selling counterfeit drugs at the Adjame market in Abidjan earlier this year. Issouf Sanogo/AFP/Getty Images hide caption
Sunday
A municipal worker sprays disinfectant during the clean-up of a market in Madagascar's Anosibe district — a measure to fight the outbreak of bubonic plague, which can be spread by a flea bite. RIJASOLO/AFP/Getty Images hide caption
Wednesday
No, he's not Popeye. He's a 79-year-old man with a surprisingly common injury. The New England Journal of Medicine hide caption
Saturday
Scientists Start To Tease Out The Subtler Ways Racism Hurts Health
Thursday
Rat traps are a weapon behind used to fight the plague in Madagascar, since the rodents carry the disease. But getting rid of all the rats would be difficult — and without rats, plague-infected fleas could then turn to humans for a blood meal. RIJASOLO/AFP/Getty Images hide caption
When it comes to sex, the roundworm Diploscapter pachys is a loner. Courtesy of Karin Kiontke and David Fitch/NYU hide caption
Saturday
Health workers spray insecticide to combat Zika-carrying mosquitoes under the bleachers of the Sambódrome in Rio de Janeiro in January 2016. Leo Correa/AP hide caption
Wednesday
Workers spray to kill fleas in a public school in Antananarivo, Madagascar's capital. A bite from an infected flea can spread the plague, which has stricken 157 people in the island nation since August. Anadolu Agency/Getty Images hide caption
Friday
Strike 2: Our second attempt at illustrating the plague story — with what we said was a 15th-century image by Jacopo Oddi from the La Franceschina codex depicting Franciscan monks treating victims of the plague in Italy — is about leprosy. A. Dagli Orti/Getty Images hide caption
Sunday
Although consuming cannabis is legal in Colorado and several other states, driving while under the influence of the drug is not. Nick Pedersen/Getty Images hide caption
Scientists Still Seek A Reliable DUI Test For Marijuana
Thursday
The defensive mucus of the Arion subfuscus slug has inspired materials scientists trying to invent better medical adhesives. Nigel Cattlin/Visuals Unlimited/Getty Images hide caption
Slug Slime Inspires Scientists To Invent Sticky Surgical Glue
Thursday
Crew members on one of the simulated Mars missions this spring included Pitchayapa Jingjit (from left), Becky Parker, Elijah Espinoza and Esteban Ramirez. Community college students and teachers in real life, the team members spent a week in the Utah desert, partly to experience the isolation and challenges of a real trip to Mars. Rae Ellen Bichell/NPR hide caption
To Prepare For Mars Settlement, Simulated Missions Explore Utah's Desert
Saturday
A double set of fences topped with barbed wire circles this outdoor decomposition site outside Grand Junction, Colo. The barrier thwarts prying eyes and protects the curious from an unpleasant surprise. Rae Ellen Bichell/NPR hide caption
To Solve Gruesome Desert Mysteries, Scientists Become Body Collectors
Thursday
The bacterium that causes the plague travels around on fleas. This flea illustration is from Robert Hooke's Micrographia, published in London in 1665. Getty Images hide caption
Monday
Sonia Vallabh lost her mother to a rare brain disease in 2010, and then learned she had inherited the same genetic mutation. She and her husband, Eric Minikel, went back to school to study the family of illnesses — prion diseases — in the hope of finding a cure for Sonia. Kayana Szymczak for NPR hide caption
A Couple's Quest To Stop A Rare Disease Before It Takes One Of Them
Kamni Vallabh helps her daughter Sonia get ready for her wedding, a few months before Kamni started showing symptoms of the prion disease that would kill her. Courtesy of Sonia Vallabh hide caption