Joe Palca
Joe Palca is a science correspondent for NPR. Since joining NPR in 1992, Palca has covered a range of science topics — everything from biomedical research to astronomy. He is currently focused on the eponymous series, "Joe's Big Idea." Stories in the series explore the minds and motivations of scientists and inventors. Palca is also the founder of NPR Scicommers – A science communication collective.
Palca began his journalism career in television in 1982, working as a health producer for the CBS affiliate in Washington, DC. In 1986, he left television for a seven-year stint as a print journalist, first as the Washington news editor for Nature, and then as a senior correspondent for Science Magazine.
In October 2009, Palca took a six-month leave from NPR to become science writer in residence at The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens.
Palca has won numerous awards, including the National Academies Communications Award, the Science-in-Society Award of the National Association of Science Writers, the American Chemical Society's James T. Grady-James H. Stack Award for Interpreting Chemistry for the Public, the American Association for the Advancement of Science Journalism Prize, and the Victor Cohn Prize for Excellence in Medical Writing. In 2019, Palca was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences for outstanding achievement in journalism.
With Flora Lichtman, Palca is the co-author of Annoying: The Science of What Bugs Us (Wiley, 2011).
He comes to journalism from a science background, having received a Ph.D. in psychology from the University of California at Santa Cruz, where he worked on human sleep physiology.
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There's another COVID-19 vaccine. This one was developed by the U.S. biotech company Novavax. It's almost 90% effective against the disease, but isn't as effective against the South African variant
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Novavax says its COVID-19 vaccine is 89% effective at preventing illness, according to an interim analysis of a U.K. study. But the vaccine wasn't as effective against some viral variants. -
Novavax says its COVID-19 vaccine is 89% effective at preventing illness, according to an interim analysis of a U.K. study. But it was less effective against a variant first found in South Africa.
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The two countries are vying for a role in ending the pandemic by offering their vaccines to countries that can't afford or obtain other vaccines. And a new study reports a promising efficacy rate. -
The COVID-19 vaccines available in the U.S. are too expensive and difficult to transport across the globe. So, many countries are turning to cheaper, easier-to-store options from Russia and China.
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Moderna announced on Monday that its COVID-19 vaccine seems to work against at least some of the new coronavirus variants. NPR discusses what it might mean for the course of the pandemic worldwide.
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Johnson & Johnson reported on Wednesday that its COVID-19 vaccine appears safe. Clinical trial results are expected to be published later this month.
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Even if the Biden administration releases all available doses of COVID-19 vaccines, supplies will remain limited. How best to use that limited supply is a question mathematicians can help answer. -
Mathematical models can help public health officials decide how best to deploy the COVID-19 vaccine when it is in short supply.
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Before scientists were even sure black holes existed, an Indian astrophysicist did the math behind Einstein's predictions of what would happen if two black holes collided.
