Shell was born in Auburn, New York, United States. In 1974, Shell received a B.A. degree from the University of Rochester. Her work tends to focus on the intersection of science and society with a special emphasis on medical policy, and she also writes on the politics of science, science and the media, and environmental policy.^[1]

Shell is the author of four books:

• A Child's Place: a year in the life of a day care center (Little, Brown, 1992)
• The Hungry Gene: the science of fat and the future of thin (New York : Atlantic Monthly Press, 2002)
• Cheap: The High Cost of Discount Culture (New York : Penguin Books, 2009)
• The Job: Work and Its Future in a Time of Radical Change (New York : Crown Publishing Group, 2018)
• Slippery Beast - A True Crime and Natural History, with Eels ' (New York : Abrams Press, 2024)

• Faculty of Boston University's Master's Degree Program in Science and Medical Journalism
• Review of Cheap, salon.com. July 12, 2009.
• Review of The Job, washingtonpost.com. Accessed February 24, 2024.