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By sequencing a newborn's genome, doctors could screen for more genetic conditions. But parents could be confronted with confusing or ambiguous data about their baby's health.

Genome Sequencing For Babies Brings Knowledge And Conflicts

Technology now exists that makes it possible for doctors to decipher the entire genetic code of a newborn. Should it be done? What about fetuses in the womb? That's now a possibility, and it's stirring intense debate.

Sites Give Emergency Compliments, Hugs On Bad Days

Audie Cornish and Melissa Block have more on some websites that deliver emergency compliments and virtual hugs when you need them most.

Dr. Ann McKee, professor of neurology and pathology of Boston University School of Medicine and co-director of the Veterans Affairs Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy, inspects a brain in the Bedford Veteran Medical Center last year.

Evidence Mounts Linking Head Hits To Permanent Brain Injury

With growing controversy over the risk of permanent brain injury in contact sports, researchers find an association between repetitive head trauma and brain disease in samples taken from deceased athletes. Many were professional football players.

People originally from northern Mali carry signs that call for military action to retake that part of the country, now under the control of Islamist militants. The rally was held in Mali's capital, Bamako, in October.

Malians In The South Want Islamists Out Of The North

Many people in southern Mali say they would be willing to go to the northern part of the country and fight the Islamist militants who are now in control. Despite all the anger, there is no immediate prospect that the Islamists will be dislodged.

This photo, taken by NASA's Curiosity rover, shows Mars' Gale Crater, where the rover has taken samples for chemical analysis. Scientists believe that at some point in the very distant past, there was a riverbed here.

NASA Scientists 'Very Careful' With New Mars Data

NASA believes its Curiosity rover might have found carbon and chlorine molecules on the red planet. But before anyone says "life on Mars," NASA needs more testing to confirm the rover's results.

A sign protesting a beverage tax in Richmond, Calif. The U.S. soft drink industry has fought proposals that would put a tax on sugar sweetened beverages like sodas and energy drinks.

Can Big Food Kick Its Obesity Habit? Does It Really Want To?

Two top food policy experts square off on the role the food industry should play in the global battle against obesity recently, and the answers are as complex, interconnected and political as ever.

Rabbi A. Romi Cohn, a noted mohel, prepares an infant for circumcision at Congregation Shaare Zion in Brooklyn on Sept. 4. Cohn opposes a New York City rule requiring parental consent for a type of circumcision ritual practiced by some Orthodox Jews.

New York, Orthodox Jews Clash Over Circumcision

Several Jewish leaders are suing New York City to block a new rule regulating a circumcision ritual known as metzitzah b'peh. City health officials say the ritual, practiced by some Orthodox Jews, can spread the herpes virus to infants. But critics say the law infringes on their freedom of religion.

A Syrian rebel walks past the stairs of a bombed building in the Saif Al Duli district in Aleppo, Syria, on Sept. 10. The vast majority of those fighting against President Bashar Assad's regime are ordinary Syrians and soldiers who have defected, but Islamist rebels are also present among the fighters.

A Rebel Fighter Sees Islamic Law In Syria's Future

Islamist rebels are among the groups fighting to topple Syrian President Bashar Assad, raising concerns in the West about what their role would be in a Syria without Assad. NPR's Kelly McEvers recently spent some time with these Islamist fighters in the embattled city of Aleppo.

A Quonset hut on the grounds of the Los Alamos National Lab in New Mexico where "Fat Man" was assembled in World War II. Fat Man was the nickname given to the atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki, Japan, on Aug. 9, 1945. The hut would be part of a new Manhattan Project National Park.

Manhattan Project Sites Part Of Proposed Park

Congress is considering whether to turn three top-secret sites involved with creating the atomic bomb into one of the country's most unusual national parks. Critics question the need for a park that celebrates nuclear weapons. Supporters say the park would ask tough questions about lessons learned.

The largest tax break in the federal code doesn't appear on the forms the average person fills out each year.

The Huge (And Rarely Discussed) Health Insurance Tax Break

Most people don't realize that they don't pay taxes on the value of health benefits from their job. If employer-provided health insurance was taxed in the same way as wages, the federal government could gain $250 billion a year. But it would mean higher taxes for many people.

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