Not Just For Cows Anymore: New Cottonseed Is Safe For People To Eat Cottonseed is full of protein but toxic to humans and most animals. The USDA has approved a genetically engineered cotton with edible seeds. They could eventually feed chickens, fish — or even people. Dan Charles
2 Towns: Guess Which 1 Is Liberal And Which Is Conservative If being liberal and conservative is about political views, how come the labels describe other things? A social scientist says some part of people's leanings come from an unlikely source: their DNA. Shankar Vedantam
Old-Growth Forests May Help Songbirds Cope With Warming Climate Songbirds have been in decline for decades, and it's becoming clear that climate change is a factor. Scientists are finding that old-growth forests may help the birds cope with rising temperatures. Jes Burns
UW professor named MacArthur 'Genius' Kristina Olson is a research psychologist and director of the TransYouth Project at the University of Washington. Bill Radke
Brett Hennig: Should We Replace Politicians With Random Citizens? Brett Hennig says democracy — and the process of voting — is broken. To fix it, he has a radical suggestion: replacing politicians with a demographically representative selection of random citizens. NPR Staff
Vivek Maru: How Can We Make Legal Support Accessible To All? Often, people who don't understand the law or can't pay for lawyers end up being mistreated. Lawyer Vivek Maru calls for a global community of paralegals to place the law on the side of the people. NPR Staff
Robin Steinberg: How Can We End The Injustice Of Bail? The bail system disproportionately impacts low-income people of color and pressures defendants into pleading guilty. But Robin Steinberg is implementing a plan to fix this--without waiting for reform. NPR Staff
Steven Wise: If Chimpanzees Can Feel And Think, Should They Also Have Legal Rights? Animals like chimpanzees are autonomous beings with rich emotional lives, says animal rights lawyer Steven Wise. He's working to get courts to recognize them as "legal persons" and grant them rights. NPR Staff
U.S. And Russian Astronauts Safe Following Rocket Malfunction After Launch NPR's Ailsa Chang talks with retired Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield about Thursday's failed launch of a Russian Soyuz rocket carrying a U.S.-Russian crew to the International Space Station.
Manned Rocket Headed For International Space Station Fails, Makes Emergency Landing Astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin were on board when their Soyuz MS-10's booster malfunctioned. The two made it out safely. Bill Chappell
