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.
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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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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. -
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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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.
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At the top of the world, the Inuit culture has developed a sophisticated way to sculpt kids' behavior without yelling or scolding. Could discipline actually be playful? -
At the top of the world, parents have figured out how to discipline kids without yelling, scolding or even speaking in an angry tone. Their secret is an ancient tool that sculpts children's behavior.
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While many people believe that how we feel and express anger is hard-wired, some scientists suggest our experience and culture help shape it. One way to get a handle on it may be to personalize it. -
The pharmaceutical giant will stop delivering its rotavirus vaccine to four West African countries and will begin to sell it in China for likely more than 10 times the cost.
