Transferring An Organ From An HIV-Positive Donor Surgeons in South Africa transplanted part of a liver from an HIV-positive mother to her uninfected daughter — a medical first. Scott Simon talks to Dr. Harriet Etheredge, a medical bioethicist.
A Slow Trip To A Hot Planet: Spacecraft Launches For Mission To Mercury The European Space Agency's BepiColombo will take seven years to reach the innermost planet in our solar system, where temperatures at the surface can reach 800 degrees Fahrenheit. Joe Palca
Scientists Learn To Hear The 'Songs' Of Ice Shelves Scientists have found a new way to analyze the structural integrity of ice shelves at the end of the world, through the songs the winds sing on top of them. Andrew Flanagan
What Do You Get A Nobel Prize Winner? It's Hard To Find A Perfect Gift The University of Missouri was deciding how to honor George Smith, who shared the 2018 Nobel in chemistry. Some schools designate parking spots but Smith bikes. He now has his own spot in a bike rack.
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