Ari Daniel
Ari Daniel is a reporter for NPR's Science desk where he covers global health and development.
Ari has always been drawn to science and the natural world. As a graduate student, Ari trained gray seal pups (Halichoerus grypus) for his Master's degree in animal behavior at the University of St. Andrews, and helped tag wild Norwegian killer whales (Orcinus orca) for his Ph.D. in biological oceanography at MIT and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. For more than a decade, as a science reporter and multimedia producer, Ari has interviewed a species he's better equipped to understand – Homo sapiens.
Over the years, Ari has reported across five continents on science topics ranging from astronomy to zooxanthellae. His radio pieces have aired on NPR, The World, Radiolab, Here & Now, and Living on Earth. Ari formerly worked as the Senior Digital Producer at NOVA where he helped oversee the production of the show's digital video content. He is a co-recipient of the AAAS Kavli Science Journalism Gold Award for his stories on glaciers and climate change in Greenland and Iceland.
In the fifth grade, Ari won the "Most Contagious Smile" award.
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Tens of thousands of years ago, modern humans mated with Neanderthals. But exactly how and when that happened -- and who those groups of humans were -- is less known.
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The tiny ray spider uses its web to grab its prey out of the air. Though common practice with comic book characters, this ability is unusual in spiders.
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The Department of Energy is focusing on aerogels to reduce the severity of lithium battery fires. a lab that creates the substance shares the pros and cons of this technology in creating safer EVs.
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Scientists observed wolves in Ethiopia feeding on flower nectar. This may be the first instance of a predator serving as a pollinator.
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A heart cockle shell has been found to let in light through a design that resembles fiber optic cables. This could inspire everything from helping coral survive to designing new camera lenses.
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Creating a census of the dung beetles of Massachusetts could help inform how to make sure dung beetles keep doing their important work in forests and farming fields.
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Birds descended from the dinosaurs, but researchers have known relatively little about how the bird's brain took shape. An 80 million-year-old bird fossil that sheds light on that mystery.
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Parrots are unique among birds in how they produce the pigmentation that makes their vibrant feathering. It turns out a single enzyme calibrates the reds and yellows of a parrot’s brilliance. -
In an undisclosed New Jersey location, there's a sanctuary for turtles intercepted in the process of being trafficked, and a man devoted to his charges. -
A company says it is pulling together DNA to try to re-create the Tasmanian tiger, which went extinct. But some people question whether it makes sense to restore creatures to a different world.
