Rae Ellen Bichell
Rae Ellen Bichell is a reporter for NPR's Science Desk. She first came to NPR in 2013 as a Kroc fellow and has since reported Web and radio stories on biomedical research, global health, and basic science. She won a 2016 Michael E. DeBakey Journalism Award from the Foundation for Biomedical Research. After graduating from Yale University, she spent two years in Helsinki, Finland, as a freelance reporter and Fulbright grantee.
-
Sierra Leoneans scramble for supplies as a three-day, countrywide lockdown approaches. International medical professionals doubt the move will do much to halt the spread of Ebola. -
In many countries, eggs aren't refrigerated and they're still considered safe to eat. But in the U.S., we have to chill them, because we've washed away the cuticle that protects them from bacteria. -
Pilots and flight attendants in some countries are classified as "radiation workers" because of their extra exposure to cosmic rays. Scientists say these frequent fliers may face greater risks.
-
It's a mystery how butterflies manage to make their brilliant wing colors, but Yale physicists got a glimpse when they took the question to the lab, breeding dull brown butterflies into purple ones.
-
By playing with the physics of wing color, scientists get a glimpse into how butterflies get their colors, and how quickly they can evolve from brown to brilliant. -
The plague has reportedly popped up in Oregon. It's the same disease that killed millions in the Middle Ages. Only now we know how to treat it.
-
Turns out that for 7,000 years, snacking on nutsedge may have helped people avoid tooth decay. But at some point, the root it lost its charm. By the 1970s, it was branded "the world's worst weed." -
When it comes to living at extreme altitudes, Tibetans may have gotten a leg up from Denisovans, a species of archaic humans that lived about 50,000 years ago. -
Passenger pigeons used to be the most abundant bird in North America. But hunters drove them to extinction, and by 1914, only one was left. A century later, that pigeon, named Martha, is on exhibit. -
On Titan, summer is almost three years away. But in a dark, placid ocean of natural gas, scientists have spotted something that could be the first inkling of springtime.
