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In his most extensive comments so far on revelations about the electronic data that the nation's spy agencies are collecting, the president also said that the programs "help us prevent terrorist attacks." He said "modest encroachments on privacy" are being balanced against national security.

When doctors run out of clues on how to treat a cancer patient, they sometimes order a scan of all the patient's genes. But such a test can turn up unexpected results, such as greater risk of another disease. When are doctors obligated to tell the patient what they know? And do patients have the right not to know?

There's a story to tell about every family's encounters with the health care system. Some are tragedies. Many are a blaze of enduring hope in the face of suffering and loss. Artist Regina Holliday brings those secret stories to life in her Walking Gallery.

News outlets in Louisiana and Texas report that the wife of the man who had been a "person of interest" is under arrest. They were reportedly going through a divorce. She had told authorities her husband might have sent the letters to President Obama and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

Reporting in the journal Science Translational Medicine researchers say a new method for essentially resetting the immune systems of patients with multiple sclerosis appears to be safe. Study co-author Stephen D. Miller of Northwestern University, describes the novel approach tested in this small, phase 1 clinical trial and explains how it might one day also be used to treat other autoimmune diseases such as type 1 diabetes.

Karen Joy Fowler's haunting novel, We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves, draws on arguments she used to have with her father, a psychology professor, over how closely connected humans and animals really are. Fowler is also the author of the 2004 best-seller The Jane Austen Book Club.

With the help of her son Lawrence Blume, Judy Blume has adapted her 1981 novel into a film. The widely beloved coming-of-age author speaks with NPR's Audie Cornish about turning the book into a movie, and how the themes in Tiger Eyes echo her own life.

Even in a starkly polarized era, there are still some issues that can draw together Americans from across the political spectrum and scramble ideological fault lines.

Goody Tyler isn't just any hard-core Great Salt Lake swimmer. He's a certified "ice swimmer." In December, Tyler swam 1 mile in the lake when the water temperature was only 41 degrees, the maximum temperature for an official "ice swim."

People often talk about African-Americans and other minorities being subject to "food deserts" — areas where fresh, healthy, affordable food is hard to come by. The findings of an NPR poll suggest that we should be thinking about "popcorn deserts," too.