Christopher Joyce
Christopher Joyce is a correspondent on the science desk at NPR. His stories can be heard on all of NPR's news programs, including NPR's Morning Edition, All Things Considered, and Weekend Edition.
Joyce seeks out stories in some of the world's most inaccessible places. He has reported from remote villages in the Amazon and Central American rainforests, Tibetan outposts in the mountains of western China, and the bottom of an abandoned copper mine in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. Over the course of his career, Joyce has written stories about volcanoes, hurricanes, human evolution, tagging giant blue-fin tuna, climate change, wars in Kosovo and Iraq, and the artificial insemination of an African elephant.
For several years, Joyce was an editor and correspondent for NPR's Radio Expeditions, a documentary program on natural history and disappearing cultures produced in collaboration with the National Geographic Society that was heard frequently on Morning Edition.
Joyce came to NPR in 1993 as a part-time editor while finishing a book about tropical rainforests and, as he says, "I just fell in love with radio." For two years, Joyce worked on NPR's national desk and was responsible for NPR's Western coverage. But his interest in science and technology soon launched him into parallel work on NPR's science desk.
In addition, Joyce has written two non-fiction books on scientific topics for the popular market: Witnesses from the Grave: The Stories Bones Tell (with co-author Eric Stover); and Earthly Goods: Medicine-Hunting in the Rainforest.
Before coming to NPR, Joyce worked for ten years as the U.S. correspondent and editor for the British weekly magazine New Scientist.
Joyce's stories on forensic investigations into the massacres in Kosovo and Bosnia were part of NPR's war coverage that won a 1999 Overseas Press Club award. He was part of the Radio Expeditions reporting and editing team that won the 2001 Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University journalism award and the 2001 Sigma Delta Chi award from the Society of Professional Journalists. Joyce won the 2001 American Association for the Advancement of Science excellence in journalism award as well as the 2016 Communication Award from the National Academies of Sciences.
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Scientists have been analyzing bones first uncovered by a utility crew digging at the Manassas National Battlefield Park in Virginia. The remains provide insights into surgery during the Civil War. -
The two satellites, which are collectively called GRACE and will replace two retired probes, are one of the most important tools for understanding the effects of climate change. -
The most thorough examination of the infamous "Pacific Garbage Patch"-- a floating swath of debris caught in a gyre — shows it's bigger, way bigger, than thought. And it's mostly plastic.
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Hurricanes, fires and even hail contributed to billions of dollars in damages. The government study also finds that it was among the warmest years on record. -
Hurricane Harvey's deluge left some homeowners and politicians wondering whether the whole system for predicting floods is any good. Scientists are hoping better data can lead to better flood maps. -
Delegates to the annual international climate meeting held by the U.N. are struggling to forge a unified approach to slowing climate change. Meanwhile, emissions of greenhouse gases keep rising. -
As researchers and engineers analyze the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey, it's becoming clear that Houston's runaway development had a big role to play in flooding. -
The U.S. government's most comprehensive climate report to date is at odds with the statements made by President Trump and his Cabinet. -
With the help of federal flood insurance, many homeowners will rebuild after disasters. Some properties already have flooded many times. It'd be cheaper to buy owners out, but that's not happening.
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President Trump pledged to rebuild Houston and Texas bigger and better than ever. However, he has also proposed eliminating federal flood mapping and the federal government's top disaster agency.
