How South Korea Uses Kimchi To Connect To The World — And Beyond

"Everybody eats, which is what makes food a perfect choice to resolve conflicts and foster connections among nations. The concept is called "gastrodiplomacy," and South Korea is one of its strongest champions."

"The country is one of the world's best at branding itself through food, using its cuisine as a kind of "soft power" to help spread South Korea's influence. And even as the government supports its citizens in opening Korean restaurants around the world, it pays special attention to promoting that most ubiquitous of Korean foods: kimchi."

"'The Korean government studied a kind of diplomacy using Korean culture, music and especially Korean food,' says Byung Hong Park, who is in charge of agriculture, food and rural affairs at the Korean Embassy in Washington, D.C."

"'Kimchi is like air in Korea,' says Hyunjoo Albrecht, a San Francisco-based chef who grew up near the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), the strip of land that serves as the border between North Korea and South Korea. 'It always has to be in the refrigerator in every house, a big batch.'"

Matt Centrowitz Takes 1,500; First U.S. Winner Since 1908

"In an action-packed night on the track, Matt Centrowitz held off the closely clustered field in the final straightaway to become the first American man to win the 1,500 meters since 1908."

"And it was another record-setting night for Allyson Felix. She anchored the U.S. to victory in the 4x400 relay victory, giving her a sixth career gold medal, the most ever by a woman in track. She broke her own record, which she set on Friday night as part of the gold-medal winning women's 4x100-meter relay."

"The only American woman to win more gold medals than Felix in any sport is swimmer Jenny Thompson, who has eight."

"Also, Britain's Mo Farah won the 5,000 meters to go with his 10,000-meter title earlier in the games, repeating a difficult double victory in distance running that he also pulled off in London four years ago."

Threatened By Rising Seas, Alaska Village Decides To Relocate

"Rising sea levels have eroded an Inupiat Eskimo village for decades. Now, residents of Shishmaref, Alaska, have officially voted to relocate."

"The island community, located near the Bering Strait, opted to move rather than remain in place with added safety measures to protect against the rising waters. The city clerk's office told NPR that 94 votes favored relocating and 78 votes wanted to protect in place."

"Now, according to the clerk's office, the city council will meet to discuss the options for where to relocate. A recent feasibility study assessed four possible sites, and the clerk says those options have been narrowed down to two."

"Esau Sinnok, an Arctic Youth ambassador from Shishmaref, wrote in a recent blog post that the community has 'lost 2,500 to 3,000 feet of land to coastal erosion' over the past 35 years. He said his family has moved 13 houses in 15 years, 'from one end of the island to the other because of this loss of land.'"

Hot Enough For You? Cool Off With A Brief History Of Frozen Treats

"In the 1500s, an Italian scientist named Giambattista della Porta made a discovery near and dear to many a frozen dessert lover's heart: By mixing salt and snow, you could lower the melting point of ice."

"Della Porta used this discovery to freeze wine in a glass of salt and ice. Specifically, he took a vial of wine, added a dash of water and immersed it in a wooden bucket full of snow mixed with saltpeter, then turned the vial round and round. The saltpeter made the snow colder than it would have been otherwise, allowing the wine inside the vial to freeze."

"Others soon heard of this phenomenon and figured out common salt would work as well, and they began using the technique to whip up not just wine slushies but other iced treats. "Cooks dipped fresh fruits in water, froze them until their icy exteriors sparkled, and then displayed them. They set marzipan boats afloat on seas of ice. They created tall pyramids of ice with fruits and flowers frozen within them," Geraldine Quinzio recounts in Of Sugar And Snow: A History of Ice Cream Making."

How To Catch The Biggest Wave In The Universe

"When it comes to waves, it doesn't get much bigger than the gravitational variety. Einstein predicted that huge events — like black holes merging — create gravitational waves. Unlike most waves we experience, these are distortions in space and time. They roll across the entire universe virtually unimpeded."

"Einstein first predicted the existence of gravitational waves in 1916, but none were spotted until recently. Given their incredible power, why did it take a century to locate them?"

"To find out, I went to see where the detection finally occurred. It's just off Interstate 12 in Livingston Parish, La. To get there you head through town, past the "Gold and Guns" pawn shop and up a country road. Turn onto an empty lane and eventually some low buildings emerge from a forest of gangly pine trees."

"This is the Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory. That's kind of a mouthful, so scientists just call it LIGO."

From Darkroom To Kitchen: A Time Capsule Of Recipes From Midcentury Photographers

"In 1977, Deborah Barsel, a bored assistant registrar at the George Eastman Museum in Rochester, N.Y., decided to try a fun side project. She would create a cookbook made up of recipes and images from famous photographers of the day. She sent letters to various artists and put an ad in the museum's magazine asking for submissions. In return, she received 120 photos, recipes and even a postcard from urban photographer John Gossage saying simply: 'I eat out.'"

"Then, like the projects of so many who leave their jobs for graduate school, the submissions were filed in a box titled "Photographer's Cookbook" and stored away for 35 years. The museum's current curator Lisa Hostetler found the box and brought it to print."

"The Photographer's Cookbook is a testament to the lost art of recipe writing. Today, thousands of recipes are just a quick Google search away, but there's often very little personality to accompany the bare lists of ingredients and instructions. Then there are the recipes in this book — many of which are not the photographers' dream recipes or even the most impressive items in their culinary arsenals."

Will Your Prescription Meds Be Covered Next Year? Better Check!

"The battle continues to rage between drug companies that are trying to make as much money as possible and insurers trying to drive down drug prices. And consumers are squarely in the middle."

"That's because, increasingly, prescription insurers are threatening to kick drugs off their lists of approved medications if the manufacturers won't give them big discounts."

"CVS Caremark and Express Scripts, the biggest prescription insurers, released their 2017 lists of approved drugs this month, and each also has long lists of excluded medications. Some of the drugs newly excluded are prescribed to treat diabetes and hepatitis. The CVS list also excludes some cancer drugs, along with Proventil and Ventolin, commonly prescribed brands of asthma inhalers, while Express Scripts has dropped Orencia, a drug for rheumatoid arthritis."

"'Such exclusions can take customers by surprise, says Lisa Gill, an editor at Consumer Reports' 'Best Buy Drugs.'"

'The Travel Detective' Explains How Airlines Became A 'Mafia'

"Here's a quick tip from a veteran traveler for the next time you're taking a flight: When you get to the airport, disavow the departure time you see on the board. Instead, take the gate number and see what time the next flight is arriving there."

"'Departure boards haven't told the truth since 1947. All the departure board is really telling you is what time the plane issupposed to leave,' says Peter Greenberg, 'The Travel Detective,' who is an author and travel editor for CBS News. 'If nothing's arriving at that gate until next Tuesday, why would you ever go to that gate? You're not going.'"

"The key to traveling, he says, is to get information before everyone else and adjust your plans first. If you're counting on the airlines to send you alerts, it's already too late."

"Any tiny advantage is good in the world of airline travel — with small seats, diminishing free food options, more baggage charges, and large-scale computer problems causing cancellations."

Astronomers Are On A Celestial Treasure Hunt. The Prize? Planet Nine

"Astronomers think they've discovered a new planet in our solar system."

"Now all they have to do is find it."

"Nobody's actually seen the new planet. The reason astronomers think it's out there is the strange behavior of some smallish objects in the Kuiper Belt, a collection of celestial objects orbiting in the outer reaches of the solar system."

"'The seven most distant of these objects, when they go really far away, they all go in the same direction' says Mike Brown, professor of planetary astronomy at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech)."

"That's one hint there's a planet tugging on them, but there are others. 'They're all also tilted, compared to the planets in the solar system,' says Brown. 'They're tilted about 20 degrees, and they're all tilted in nearly exactly the same direction.'"

Talk About An Ancient Mariner! Greenland Shark Is At Least 272 Years Old

"Sharks can live to be at least 272 years old in the Arctic seas, and scientists say one recently caught shark may have lived as long as 512 years."

"That's according to a study published Thursday in the journal Science that says Greenland sharks can live longer than any other known animal advanced enough to have a backbone. Until now, the record-holder for the oldest vertebrate was the bowhead whale, known to have lived up to 211 years."

"The Greenland shark, a massive carnivore that can be more than 16 feet long, hasn't been studied much, and its life in the cold northern waters remains largely mysterious. Julius Nielsen, at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark, says there had been some hints that Greenland sharks grow very slowly, perhaps less than a centimeter per year. That suggested the huge sharks might be ancient."

"'We only expected that the sharks might be very old,' says Nielsen. ''But we did not know in advance. And it was, of course, a very big surprise to learn that it was actually the oldest vertebrate animal.'"

The Porous Boundary Between Science And The Mysterious

"Sometimes things seem to happen for a reason. Some people call these events happy coincidences, others call them the work of God, or of many gods, while yet others see them as manifestations of one's karma."

"I prefer the happy-coincidence choice, finding supernatural maneuvering a far-fetched hypothesis. In fact, the whole notion of a supernatural influence doesn't quite make sense, at least from a scientific perspective. After all, an "influence" denotes a physical occurrence or an event. And an occurrence is something that happens in the physical world through some kind of energy exchange. Any kind of energy exchange or force is very natural and requires a very natural cause. In other words, as soon as the supernatural becomes physical enough to be noticed or detected in some way, it can't remain supernatural anymore. A 'supernatural influence' is an oxymoron. At most, it could mean something currently beyond our scientific understanding."

"That said, there have been a few events in my life that defy logical explanation; or, at any rate, that defy any logical explanation that I can come up with. Although my position may sound somewhat shocking — especially coming from a scientist — to those who bet on our ability to explain everything, I'd argue that some things are unexplainable. In fact, I'll go further and argue that the unexplainable — to be distinguished from the not-yet-explained, which is the province of science — is unavoidable. And should be welcomed."

Young Inventors Work On Secret Proteins To Thwart Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria

"Three college-age scientists think they know how to solve a huge problem facing medicine. They think they've found a way to overcome antibiotic resistance."

"Many of the most powerful antibiotics have lost their efficacy against dangerous bacteria, so finding new antibiotics is a priority."

"It's too soon to say for sure if the young researchers are right, but if gumption and enthusiasm count for anything, they stand a fighting chance."

"I met Zach Rosenthal, Christian Choe and Maria Filsinger Interrante in the lower level of the Shriram Center for Bioengineering & Chemical Engineering on the campus of Stanford University."

"Filsinger Interrante just graduated from Stanford and is now in an M.D./Ph.D. program. Rosenthal and Choe are rising seniors."

The Best Schools In The World Do This. Why Don't We?

"For a moment, let's pretend."

"That everything you know about America's public education system — the bitter politics and arcane funding policies, the rules and countless reasons our schools work (or don't) the way they do — is suddenly negotiable."

"Pretend the obstacles to change have melted like butter on hot blacktop."

"Now ask yourself: What could — and should — we do differently?"

"This question drove a bipartisan group of more than two-dozen state lawmakers and legislative staffers on an 18-month journey. Their mission: study some of the world's top-performing school systems, including those in Finland, Hong Kong, Japan, Ontario, Poland, Shanghai, Singapore and Taiwan."

"Today the group, part of the National Conference of State Legislatures, released its findings, titled No Time to Lose: How to Build a World-Class Education System State by State."

In China, Some Schools Are Playing With More Creativity, Less Cramming

"At first glance, it looks like an ordinary gym class at a public school in Yibin, a city of about a million people in southwest China's Sichuan province."

"But then you notice that the students are wearing signs: "Nitrate," "Sulfate," "Phosphate." In their game of tag, they chase the classmates they need to start a chemical reaction."

"This is how gym and chemistry classes are combined at the Cold Water Well Middle School. Upstairs, in a combined history and math class, students use statistics to find patterns in the rise and fall of nations."

"These experiments are the brainchild of former journalist Zhang Liang."

"'What we're trying to tell them is that the real motivation behind all your studies is to help you realize how fascinating this world really is,' he explains. 'Once they get this, their own initiative will gradually emerge.'"

Centuries-Old Flea Market In France Canceled This Year Over Terrorism Fear

"For centuries, the northern French town of Lille has been home to an autumn flea market — as famous for its party atmosphere as for its wealth of secondhand goods. Last year, more than 2 million people came to the weekend festival to gulp down oysters, drink all night and haggle over goods."

"But La Braderie de Lille has been called off this year. After recent terrorist attacks in France, authorities say it is impossible to ensure security, NPR's Eleanor Beardsley reports."

"'Lille Mayor Martine Aubrey said canceling La Braderie was a gut-wrenching decision, but the city could not guarantee the safety of the more than 2 million visitors who show up for the street fair,' Eleanor reports. The head of Lille's Chamber Of Commerce called the cancellation an economic and cultural disaster."

Former KKK Leader David Duke Says 'Of Course' Trump Voters Are His Voters

"Former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke is running for U.S. Senate and tells NPR that he believes he'll be getting the votes of Donald Trump supporters."

"And he reiterated his own support for Trump, saying he's '100 percent behind' the Republican presidential candidate's agenda."

"'As a United States senator, nobody will be more supportive of his legislative agenda, his Supreme Court agenda, than I will,' Duke said."

"Trump, while he once said he didn't know enough about Duke to comment on him, has several times disavowed endorsements by Duke. But that hasn't stopped some white supremacists from publicly supporting Trump's campaign."

NIH Plans To Lift Ban On Research Funds For Part-Human, Part-Animal Embryo

"The federal government announced plans Thursday to lift a moratorium on funding of certain controversial experiments that use human stem cells to create animal embryos that are partly human."

"The National Institutes of Health is proposing a new policy to permit scientists to get federal money to make embryos, known as chimeras, under certain carefully monitored conditions."

"The NIH imposed a moratorium on funding these experiments in September because they could raise ethical concerns."

"One issue is that scientists might inadvertently create animals that have partly human brains, endowing them with some semblance of human consciousness or human thinking abilities. Another is that they could develop into animals with human sperm and eggs and breed, producing human embryos or fetuses inside animals or hybrid creatures."

The Oyster's Mighty Comeback Is Creating Cleaner U.S. Waterways

"The farm-to-table movement has caused oyster farming on the East Coast to double in the past six years, and the industry has shown no signs of slowing. But not only is the mollusk's mighty comeback good for consumers and fishermen — it's also good for waterways."

"Jimmy Parks, longtime chef and owner of the Butcher Station in Winchester, Va., says the way we eat oysters has changed in the past decade."

"'As much food as possibly can go on my plate at the least amount of money I can spend used to be the way things were,' says Parks. 'Now people are getting away from that, and they're gravitating toward ... cleaner sources.'"

"People are also paying attention to an oyster's taste profile — sometimes called a 'merroir' — of where they come from. For instance, oysters from New England are usually saltier than Chesapeake Bay oysters, which are milder with a buttery finish."

Researchers Describe A New Hypothesis About Why The Female Orgasm Exists

"A pair of scientists have a new hypothesisabout why the female orgasm exists: It might have something to do with releasing an egg to be fertilized."

"Scientists have puzzled over, and sometimes even questioned the existence of, a phenomenon that appears to have no physical effect on conception. While a male orgasm is crucial to impregnate a female, it is not obvious how a female orgasm affects whether she is impregnated."

"In fact, Aristotle and Hippocrates both pointed out the female orgasm appears to be an afterthought, at least when it comes to creating offspring."

"The theory would explain the modern reality that women do not experience orgasms as easily or as regularly as men."

The Importance Of Getting Things Wrong

"Think about our planet for a second. Earth has an elliptical — oval-shaped — orbit. That means we're closer to the sun for one part of the year and farther away another part of the year."

"Does that fact explain why it's hotter in the summer and colder in the winter?"

"Lots of kids think it does. Lots of adults think so, too. And they're wrong."

"Philip Sadler is both a professor of astronomy and the director of the science education department at Harvard University, and he is obsessed with wrong answers like these."

"'Students are not empty vessels,' he says. 'Students are full of all kinds of knowledge, and they have explanations for everything.' From birth, human beings are working hard to figure out the world around us."