John Nielsen
John Nielsen covers environmental issues for NPR. His reports air regularly on NPR's award-winning news magazines, All Things Considered, Morning Edition and Weekend Edition. He also prepares documentaries for the NPR/National Geographic Radio Expeditions series, which is heard regularly on Morning Edition. Nielsen also occasionally serves as the substitute host for several NPR News programs.
During his years with NPR, Nielsen has reported on a wide range of topics, including the environmental records of the last three U.S. presidents; changing world population trends; repeated attempts to limit suburban sprawl; socially divisive water shortages in the Middle East; allegations of "toxic racism" in the United States; rhinoceros relocation efforts in the lowland forests of Nepal; and attempts to track and cope with the West Nile virus, toxic algal blooms, environmental problems related to economic globalization, and the causes of global climate change.
Before joining NPR in 1990, Nielsen was a Knight Fellow in the Science Journalism program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Prior to that, he worked for the Los Angeles Times, The Orange County Register, and the Salisbury (North Carolina) Evening Post.
Nielsen's Condor: To the Brink and Back--The Life and Times of One Giant Bird (HarperCollins) was published in 2006 and is out in paperback in March 2007. The book focuses on the long-running fight to save the California condor, a giant rare vulture that used to be common near his childhood home, the tiny town of Piru, California.
Nielsen's freelance work has been published in a variety of newspapers and magazines. He has lectured at the University of Utah, Princeton University, and Yale University. In 2005 he was awarded the Science Journalism Award for Excellence in Radio Reporting by the American Association fo the Advnacement of Science.
He is a graduate of Stanford University, where he studied Shakespeare. Nielsen has three children and lives in Washington, DC.
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Ants that limbo... lazy, sex-hungry mole rats.... and a parasitic worm that slithers out nostrils. All attracted the attention of serious scientists this week. The latest from the annals of strange-but-true animal research.
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The U.S. government announces that it is expanding efforts to test wild and domestic birds for the deadly Asian bird-flu virus. Experts say it is a matter of when, not if, the virus arrives in the United States. We visit two Maryland chicken farms to see how U.S. farmers are preparing for the threat.
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Health officials say migratory waterfowl like ducks and geese are spreading the H5N1 bird flu virus from Asia to Europe and Africa. Bird experts aren't so sure; they point to an illegal trade in infected poultry. -
In the dark, wet peat bogs of Sumatra lives a creature that now boasts the title of world's smallest fish. Paedocypris progenetica is no bigger than a nail clipping and swipes the title from the Pacific's half-inch-long goby.
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No one knows what birds see when they look out at the world, but one ornithologist is sure they don't see glass. Daniel Klem estimates that at least 1 billion birds are killed by flying into windows every year in the United States.
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A Harvard dental researcher says he's figured out the purpose of the giant, unicorn-like tusk seen on narwhal whales: It acts like an antenna that allows the narwhal to sense food and sea conditions. The dentist says the tusks are a giant tooth that grows inside out, with hard tissue inside and sensitive nerves on the outside.
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Circumstantial evidence is mounting that wild birds are carrying the H5N1 virus along major migratory pathways. The virus has been linked to ducks moving through Europe's Danube delta. Though no solid proof exists so far, concern is growing that these ducks could play a role in creating a flu pandemic.
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A 12,400-mile journey by a great white shark puts a snag in the theory that the animals stick close to established feeding grounds. The trip is bolstering claims that the sharks need worldwide protection.
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The Bush administration wants to change a rule that requires the rebuilding of depleted fish stocks within a decade. The 10-year rule helped curb an over-fishing crisis when it took effect in 1996. Supporters say the rule is out of date and ineffective; environmental groups strongly oppose the move.
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Some 300 million monarch butterflies spread all over North America will soon converge on small forests in the mountains of Mexico. This year, the butterflies have unusual company -- Francisco Gutierrez. He plans to follow the monarchs' migration in a 33-foot wide utralight airplane.
