Geoff Brumfiel

Geoff Brumfiel appears in the following:

What caused Monday's major earthquake in Turkey? Here's what we know

Tuesday, February 07, 2023

A devastating earthquake has struck southern Turkey and Northern Syria. It's a seismically active part of the world known for big quakes. (Story first aired on All Things Considered on Feb. 6, 2023.)

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Here's what we know about what caused the Turkey earthquake

Tuesday, February 07, 2023

Seismologists say Monday's earthquake took place in a complex junction of faults that was long overdue for a big one. The destructive shaking was spread across many kilometers.

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Why the earthquake caused so much damage in Turkey, despite being long overdue

Monday, February 06, 2023

A devastating earthquake has struck southern Turkey and Northern Syria. It's a seismically active part of the world known for big quakes.

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What we know about the alleged Chinese government spy balloon

Friday, February 03, 2023

A spy balloon from China has been causing alarm in the U.S. What is it doing, and is it a threat to national security?

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Blinken postpones his Beijing trip after a Chinese balloon is spotted over Montana

Friday, February 03, 2023

China's foreign ministry described the balloon as "a civilian airship" for meteorological research that had blown far off course by winds. The Pentagon suspects it's collecting sensitive information.

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We asked the new AI to do some simple rocket science. It crashed and burned

Thursday, February 02, 2023

Computers traditionally excel at rocketry, so why do new artificial intelligence programs get it wrong?

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For space exploration, 2022 was a year full of cosmic milestones

Sunday, January 01, 2023

Earthlings seemed to generate more good news in 2022 off the planet than on. From deflecting an asteroid to sending a camera deep into the universe, a look back on the year in space.

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Researchers say time is an illusion. So why are we all obsessed with it?

Friday, December 16, 2022

Even guardians of America's atomic clocks say time doesn't work the way we think it does.

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Physicists are still trying to understand time

Thursday, December 15, 2022

Scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology track time with atomic clocks. But what is time, really? Physicists are still trying to answer that question.

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How close are we actually to fusion energy powering society?

Wednesday, December 14, 2022

Fusion energy has remained a distant dream for decades, but scientists announced they got more energy back than they put in to create the reaction. How close are we to fusion energy powering society?

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Scientists announce nuclear fusion breakthrough

Tuesday, December 13, 2022

Scientists announced a major breakthrough in nuclear fusion. They were able to coax more power out of an experiment than they put in.

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U.S. reaches a fusion power milestone. Will it be enough to save the planet?

Tuesday, December 13, 2022

A giant laser facility in Livermore, Calif., says it has created net energy from nuclear fusion. It's an important breakthrough, but fusion power remains a distant dream.

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How yeast will teach NASA about the dangers of space

Monday, December 05, 2022

A NASA spacecraft passing by the moon on Monday is carrying 12,000 varieties of yeast. Researchers hope the tiny "yeastronauts" can teach them about how radiation will affect humans in space.

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Former President Trump tweeted a classified satellite photo in 2019

Friday, November 18, 2022

A briefing slide obtained by NPR through the Freedom of Information Act shows that former President Trump tweeted a classified satellite photo in 2019.

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Trump tweeted an image from a spy satellite, declassified document shows

Friday, November 18, 2022

More than three years after his tweet, the U.S. government has formally declassified the image from one of its most powerful spy satellites.

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Researchers dig into why nose-picking is a common behavior

Tuesday, November 15, 2022

New research shows that a type of primate known as an aye-aye loves picking its nose. Researchers say the findings raise interesting questions about why nose-picking is such a common behavior.

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Vaccines used to be apolitical. Now they're a campaign issue

Wednesday, November 02, 2022

Advocates for inoculation are distressed by what they see as a new political focus on an old public health measure.

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Genetic sequencing gives us the first-ever look at a Neanderthal clan

Thursday, October 20, 2022

"You know, this image of Neanderthals being brutes, is not quite accurate," says paleogenticist Laurits Skov. "The more we learn about them, the more like humans they appear to be."

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Researchers uncover the first Neanderthals that are related to each other

Wednesday, October 19, 2022

Researchers have uncovered the first Neanderthals that are related to each other. The finding shows that these ancient people lived in clans similar to those of modern humans.

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Russia's nuclear arsenal is huge, but will Putin use it?

Monday, October 17, 2022

Experts in Russian doctrine worry that as the war in Ukraine gets more desperate, Russia might be tempted to detonate a nuclear weapon.

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