Joe's Big Idea Joe's Big Idea is a new project by NPR Science Correspondent Joe Palca that examines where scientists' big ideas come from, how they pursue those ideas and how something goes from an idea to a discovery.
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Joe's Big Idea
Exploring how ideas become innovations and inventions
Tobacco plants are being used in the development of COVID-19 vaccines. One is already being tested in humans. Rehman Asad/Barcroft Media via Getty Images hide caption
Tobacco Plants Contribute Key Ingredient For COVID-19 Vaccine
Pfizer Seems To Lead Coronavirus Vaccine Development Race. How Did It Get Ahead?
Operation Warp Speed's Moncef Slaoui, seen here at the White House in May, says clinical trials of experimental COVID-19 vaccines will soon reveal if they work. Meanwhile, manufacture of the vaccines is picking up speed. Drew Angerer/Getty Images hide caption
Earlier in the week, AstraZeneca had paused worldwide studies of its candidate vaccine after one U.K. participant developed symptoms consistent with the spinal cord inflammation known as transverse myelitis. Alastair Grant/AP hide caption
The AstraZeneca/Oxford partnership is one of the vaccine development efforts that is furthest along. The company recently began a Phase 3 trial in the United States that aims to enroll 30,000 volunteers. Alastair Grant/AP hide caption
Romanesco broccoli, as seen by a 3.2 billion pixel camera. Scientists chose to take a picture of the broccoli because of its fractal shape. LSST Camera team/SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory/Rubin Observatory hide caption
California Scientists Build A Camera To Take Pictures Of Huge Swath Of Sky
A scientist at work on a COVID-19 vaccine candidate at Bogazici University in Istanbul in August. Onur Coban/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images hide caption
Several influenza vaccines have been made in the form of a nasal spray, instead of an injection. The sprays confer two kinds of immunity to the recipient but can be difficult technologically to make. Tim Sloan/AFP via Getty Images hide caption
What A Nasal Spray Vaccine Against COVID-19 Might Do Even Better Than A Shot
Potential COVID-19 vaccines are kept in a tray at Novavax labs in Maryland on March 20. The Novavax vaccine requires an immune-boosting ingredient called an adjuvant to be effective. Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images hide caption
A laboratory technician holds a dose of a COVID-19 vaccine candidate ready for a trial in May 2020. Mladen Antonov/AFP via Getty Images hide caption
Cell culture operators prepare a 2000-liter single-use bioreactor to produce proteins used to make vaccines. Philip Taciak/Emergent Biosolutions hide caption
Vaccine Makers Hedge Bets On Which One Will Emerge As Effective And Safe
President Trump announced in May that he was taking hydroxychloroquine as a preventive measure against COVID-19. But a study published Wednesday finds no evidence the drug is protective in this way. GEORGE FREY/AFP via Getty Images hide caption
No Evidence Hydroxychloroquine Is Helpful In Preventing COVID-19, Study Finds
Dr. Jonas Salk, the scientist who created the polio vaccine, administers an injection to an unidentified boy at Arsenal Elementary School in Pittsburgh, Pa., in 1954. AP hide caption
New Studies Show That Developing A Coronavirus Vaccine Should Be Possible
Engineers work on a potential vaccine for the coronavirus at a Beijing lab. Nicolas Asfouri/AFP via Getty Images hide caption
TRACE field staff assemble nasal swabs, collection tubes and other materials into home sampling kits. All field staff are tested for COVID-19 each week prior to working. Laura de la Torre/Oregon State University hide caption
In Oregon Town, Volunteers Are Going Door-To-Door To Pin Down Coronavirus Infections
Test strips from SARS-CoV-2 test. A single line means the virus isn't present Courtesy MIT hide caption
Footage issued by Britain's Oxford University shows a person injected as part of human trials in the U.K. to test a potential coronavirus vaccine last month. Pfizer on Monday began U.S. trials of another vaccine candidate. Oxford University Pool via AP hide caption