Michaeleen Doucleff
Michaeleen Doucleff, PhD, is a correspondent for NPR's Science Desk. For nearly a decade, she has been reporting for the radio and the web for NPR's global health outlet, Goats and Soda. Doucleff focuses on disease outbreaks, cross-cultural parenting, and women and children's health.
In 2014, Doucleff was part of the team that earned a George Foster Peabody award for its coverage of the Ebola outbreak in West Africa. For the series, Doucleff reported on how the epidemic ravaged maternal health and how the virus spreads through the air. In 2019, Doucleff and Senior Producer Jane Greenhalgh produced a story about how Inuit parents teach children to control their anger. That story was the most popular one on NPR.org for the year; altogether readers have spent more than 16 years worth of time reading it.
In 2021, Doucleff published a book, called Hunt, Gather, Parent, stemming from her reporting at NPR. That book became a New York Times bestseller.
Before coming to NPR in 2012, Doucleff was an editor at the journal Cell, where she wrote about the science behind pop culture. Doucleff has a bachelor degree in biology from Caltech, a doctorate in physical chemistry from the University of Berkeley, California, and a master's degree in viticulture and enology from the University of California, Davis.
-
Turns out, Ebola is transmitted through the air, but it's not very good at spreading through the airborne route. What in the heck does that mean? We dig into the science to clear up the kerfuffle.
-
Ebola can linger in semen for months after a person recovers from the disease. So survivors are typically given condoms and a stern warning. But India is being more cautious.
-
When a pregnant woman catches Ebola, the fetus and amniotic fluid are flooded with the virus. The ripple effects of these dangerous deliveries could be more catastrophic than Ebola itself.
-
Rotavirus kills more than a half-million kids around the world each year. Now scientists have evidence that the secret to stopping it is hiding in the trillions of bacteria of our microbiome.
-
There's potentially some good news about Ebola: While cases are still rising in Sierra Leone, the outbreak shows signs of slowing in Liberia. Communities are banding together to get Ebola out.
-
Folks in the U.S. are in a panic about catching Ebola. Let's just say, you're more likely to be eaten by a shark. The situation in Liberia, however, is starkly different.
-
A man with Ebola spent four days out in the Dallas community, possibly infecting others. So why are health officials so sure they can stop Ebola from spreading?
-
A man who flew to the U.S. from Liberia has tested positive for Ebola. He was not sick on the plane, but developed symptoms later. He is currently in isolation at a hospital in Dallas.
-
About 5 million women worldwide are admitted to hospitals each year because of complications after an abortion. But the key to stopping these injuries may have nothing to with changing the law.
-
Health leaders now say the Ebola epidemic is growing exponentially. That means, if nothing changes in the next few weeks, we could see at least 60,000 Ebola cases by the end of 2014.