Michaeleen Doucleff
Michaeleen Doucleff is a reporter for NPR's Science Desk. She reports for the radio and the Web for NPR's global health and development blog, Goats and Soda. Doucleff focuses on disease outbreaks, drug development, and trends in global 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 2015, Doucleff and Senior Producer Jane Greenhalgh reported on the extreme prejudices faced by young women in Nepal when they're menstruating. Their story was the second most popular one on the NPR website in 2015 and contributed to the NPR series on 15-year-old girls around the world, which won two Gracie Awards.
As a science journalist, Doucleff has reported on a broad range of topics, from vaccination fears and the microbiome to beer biophysics and dog psychology.
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 doctorate in chemistry from the University of Berkeley, California, and a master's degree in viticulture and enology from the University of California, Davis.
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"The vaccine is on its way, folks," Dr. Anthony Fauci announced. But what about the rest of world, especially families in poorer counties. Is the vaccine "on its way for them?" -
How risky is it to travel on the plane during the pandemic? Scientists are beginning to answer that question, and are trying to figure out what passengers can do to lower their exposure risk.
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As scientists race to develop a vaccine specific for COVID-19, some researchers are testing an old vaccine, that's been proven safe and is cheap to manufacture, to see if it could slow the pandemic.
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As if the pandemic weren't enough, people are wondering whether climate change will cause pathogens buried in frozen ground to come back to life as the Arctic warms. How worried should we be?
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Here are recommendations from researchers on how to stave off infectious diseases such as the common cold and the flu during a flight.
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Some parents swear by it. They say it's the only way they and their babies get any sleep. Others parents say it's harmful. So what does the science say? Here we separate fiction from fact.
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Last fall, Merck said it would stop selling its rotavirus vaccine to West Africa and redirect its supply to China at a higher price. After NPR broke the story, the situation changed — for the good.
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For the first time, the World Health Organization has estimated how well the world is doing to prevent low-weight births. The progress is too slow, researchers say.
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A dengue vaccine put thousands of kids at risk for a deadly condition. Some scientists say the manufacturer and health officials did too little to warn parents in the Philippines.
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It took more than 30 years to develop. The hope is it will eventually save tens of thousands of lives each year. But there are a few issues.
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Our readers share ways to get your children to listen without raising your voice — sometimes without saying a word.
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The U.S. has confirmed more than 500 measles cases so far this year. That's 50 percent higher than the total number recorded last year, even though we're only about a quarter of the way through 2019.
