
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.
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New coronavirus cases are at their lowest level since October. Some health experts think the vaccination campaign deserves credit for tamping down the U.S. outbreak. But will the downturn last?
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An analysis of mice in the Big Apple finds that many harbor bacteria that can make humans sick if exposed to the animals' droppings. Some of the bacterial strains were resistant to antibiotics.
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People who experience a sharp drop in wealth face a much higher risk of dying over the next 20 years, according to a study of more than 8,000 adults in the U.S.
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The opioid epidemic caused U.S. life expectancy to fall for the second year in a row, marking the first time that has happened since the early 1960s. Death rates also continued to rise.
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An influential Harlem church is trying to help the National Institutes of Health overcome reluctance by some African-Americans to participate in a medical study of 1 million diverse Americans.
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U.S. doctors are prescribing opioid painkillers less often and at lower doses, but at rates that are three times higher than their European counterparts, the CDC says.
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The administration's proposed budget would cut billions out of health programs at the NIH, CDC and FDA, as well as Medicaid services for children, the elderly and disabled.
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Geographic inequality in life span is growing in the United States, with people in some counties living more than 20 years longer than those in others.
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The CDC says the death rate for black Americans fell 25 percent over 17 years and was especially dramatic for those 65 and older. But young black people are still dying earlier than white Americans.
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Research from Denmark suggests about one-third of lumps detected by routine mammograms would never have become dangerous. That puts women at risk of needless surgery, radiation or chemotherapy.