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Melissa Block talks to University of Virginia law professor Anne Coughlin about the announcement expected Thursday from Defense Secretary Leon Panetta about the removal of the ban on women in combat. Coughlin and her students did the research which inspired a lawsuit filed by two women in the Army Reserves last year, alleging that policies banning women from ground combat units violated constitutional rights.

One new analysis finds female smokers are more than 26 times more likely to die of lung cancer than nonsmoking women — twice the rate calculated 30 years ago. New data also quantify the surprising payoffs of smoking cessation — especially under the age of 40.

The world is full of data — and that's a problem. We have to find a place to store all those digital photos, tax records and unfinished novels. British scientists have demonstrated a possible solution: They've stored all of Shakespeare's sonnets on several small stretches of DNA.

The coaches in next month's Super Bowl are brothers. Jim Harbaugh's San Francisco 49ers face John Harbaugh's Baltimore Ravens. Roy Fox tried to trademark the phrases: Harbowl and Harbaugh Bowl. The NFL threatened to sue him.

Frank Gore of the San Francisco 49ers had a terrible NFC championship game. Sure, he ran for two touchdowns. And yes, his team came back to win, and made it to the Super Bowl. But officials noticed his socks were sagging. It was his second dress code violation this season, and they fined him $10,500.

Eating the popular noodle dish normally requires two hands — one for chopsticks, the other for a spoon. Designers at a Taiwanese company noticed a guy trying to do that while juggling his cell phone. So they came up with a way to slurp it up while watching videos or reading emails.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta made the historic announcement Thursday afternoon. The reality, though, is that women in the U.S. military have been in harm's way in recent years. Women veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan can speak to that. Still, the lifting of the ban will open up jobs.

There were 330,000 first-time claims for benefits last week, down 5,000 from the week before. That means applications remain at the lowest level since January 2008.

White, who prosecuted terrorists during her time as U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, would succeed Mary Schapiro, who stepped down in December. The president is also planning to renominate Richard Cordray to lead the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

The legislation would effectively reinstate a ban that was in effect from 1994 into 2004. But the bill faces long odds on Capitol Hill.