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In 2011, Comet Lovejoy traveled through the sun's corona and lived to tell the tale. But its tail was the most telling. Reporting in the journal Science, Cooper Downs, an astrophysicist at Predictive Science Inc., says that the wiggly path of the comet's tail helps explain the sun's magnetic field.

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?

Many people associate France today with the production of great wines. But winemaking isn't native to the French. Patrick McGovern, an archaeologist of fermented beverages, has dated the beginning of viniculture in France to around 500 B.C. and contact with the Etruscans.

The Chicago Sun-Times made a surprise announcement last week: It fired its entire photography staff. Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist John H. White spent decades working there. He shares what this news means for him personally and for the future of photojournalism.

The White House says the NSA needs to collect citizens' phone records to protect the country from terrorist threats. But is it in our best interests or just another example of Big Brother? The Barbershop guys weigh in.

Entrepreneurs, investors and data geeks descended on Washington, D.C., in pursuit of better ways to make health information useful for consumers. They urged bureaucrats to set the health data free.

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.

News reports have revealed the National Security Agency is data-mining Internet and social media companies including Microsoft, Apple, Facebook and Google. According to reports, the agency is also collecting Verizon phone records of millions of U.S. citizens. For more, Renee Montagne talks to Glenn Greenwald, the reporter who co-wrote the stories for the British newspaper The Guardian.

Over the past two days, there have been revelations about the way the National Security Agency is gathering information for intelligence. While details of both programs are still coming out, the data collection practice appears to be legal. But it could be the beginning of something new in the intelligence community. And that is, the use of data to find patterns analysts might have missed.

The singer, best known as the voice of the alt-bluegrass band Crooked Still, is releasing her solo debut. It's full of songs from and inspired by the Irish folk tradition she grew up with.