Ari Daniel is a science and environment reporter for PRI's The World and many museum, non-profit, academic and news organizations. He is passionate about telling human stories about science and empowering others to do the same.
I've always loved science. As a graduate student, I trained gray seal pups (Halichoerus grypus) for my Master's degree at the University of St. Andrews and helped tag wild Norwegian killer whales (Orcinus orca) for my Ph.D. at MIT and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. These days, as a science reporter, I record a species that I'm better equipped to understand — Homo sapiens. My radio stories have been featured on PRI’s The World, Radiolab, and NPR’s Morning Edition and All Things Considered. In the fifth grade, I won the “Most Contagious Smile” award.
In the two decades since Texas A&M opened a campus in Doha, there have been plenty of challenges, including ongoing conflicts in the region. The school also faced criticisms because it operated under the autocratic Qatari government and censorship is common. But the partnership brought in millions of dollars and the campus flourished. So, Qataris were stunned when the Texas A&M Board of Regents voted to close the school in part because of “instability” in the region.
Saturday evening marks the end of Ramadan. Even though Rami is putting in long hours treating patients with the coronavirus, he’s thankful for a more traditional celebration of Ramadan — with his wife and young son.
All over the world, the scientific community is feeling the impact of the coronavirus, both in the field and in the laboratory. In some cases, research has been paused or discontinued. For some, it means changing plans — staying put instead of going abroad, or not being able to return home.
Doctors in China and the US have transfused antibodies from recovered patients directly into the blood of people with severe cases of COVID-19. Dr. Mario Ostrowski and his collaborators want to identify the genes that encode these antibodies and use them to mass produce lab-grown versions — to turn into a drug to treat the infection.