Rebecca Hersher
Rebecca Hersher (she/her) is a reporter on NPR's Science Desk, where she reports on outbreaks, natural disasters, and environmental and health research. Since coming to NPR in 2011, she has covered the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, embedded with the Afghan army after the American combat mission ended, and reported on floods and hurricanes in the U.S. She's also reported on research about puppies. Before her work on the Science Desk, she was a producer for NPR's Weekend All Things Considered in Los Angeles.
Hersher was part of the NPR team that won a Peabody award for coverage of the Ebola epidemic in West Africa, and produced a story from Liberia that won an Edward R. Murrow award for use of sound. She was a finalist for the 2017 Daniel Schorr prize; a 2017 Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting fellow, reporting on sanitation in Haiti; and a 2015 NPR Above the Fray fellow, investigating the causes of the suicide epidemic in Greenland.
Prior to working at NPR, Hersher reported on biomedical research and pharmaceutical news for Nature Medicine.
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A new study suggests there is far more plastic in the Atlantic Ocean than scientists estimated earlier, especially tiny pieces of plastic that can end up inside fish and other animals. -
The pandemic has hindered climate data collection from ships and buoys in the oceans. The U.N. warns it could negatively affect climate models' accuracy unless scientists find new ways to gather data.
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Family violence increases in places that have been severely burned in bushfires, Australian research finds. The isolation and financial stress of COVID-19 appear to be exacerbating the problem. -
Temperatures in a Siberian town were reported to hit 100 degrees Fahrenheit on Saturday. That would be a record for the highest temperature documented above the Arctic Circle.
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Car traffic took a big dip beginning in late March, and headlines celebrated clean air around the U.S. But an NPR analysis of EPA data tells a more troubling story. -
Many states are projected to have excessive demand for ventilator machines in the coming weeks, but no state government has formally asked hospitals to prepare for difficult and complex crisis triage. -
Surging coronavirus infections mean that local officials in the hardest-hit cities are forced to take on new responsibilities that go far beyond their normal day jobs.
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Spring begins at 11:50 p.m. ET on March 19 this year. It is the earliest nationwide vernal equinox since 1896. Why, you ask? Get ready for orbital mechanics and a lot of information about calendars. -
After deadly 2009 wildfires, authorities offered to buy property to encourage people to move. Few accepted. The questions raised by Australia's experience are freshly urgent after its latest fires. -
Students, business owners, sanitation workers and doctors are all struggling to cope with the daily frustrations of living in a city of 7 million that's afraid of an outbreak of COVID-19.
