Rob Stein
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'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 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 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.
-
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. apparently embraces the outdated "miasma theory" of disease instead of the widely accept "germ theory" of disease, which may help explain some of the actions he's been taking. -
In a public letter, hundreds of scientists expressed their dissent to the Trump administration's policies affecting the National Institutes of Health and called on its director to support the agency. -
Federal health officials have changed the game for COVID vaccine access. Pregnant moms and others who rely on them to protect a high-risk family member are scared. -
Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr. announced that CDC recommendations for COVID vaccines will no longer include healthy pregnant women and healthy children. -
President Trump issued an executive order Monday banning federal funding for any research abroad that involves a field of scientific study known as "gain-of-function" research. Here's what it means. -
The Women's Health Initiative, begun in the 1990s, has made many important discoveries. Now funding to collect more research data will end in September. -
The new page emphatically promotes a theory that many scientists question. Meanwhile, basic information about COVID testing and vaccines has disappeared. -
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says autism is "epidemic" and he's launching research to identify an "environmental toxin" for blame. Independent scientists and advocates are skeptical.
-
Surgeons at NYU Langone Health in New York City had to remove a genetically modified pig kidney from Towana Looney, 53, of Gadsden, Ala., because her body rejected the organ. She's back on dialysis. -
Colossal Biosciences says it used novel gene-editing technology to alter gray wolf DNA to breed the animals. Dire wolves recently featured prominently in the HBO series Game of Thrones.
