Double Trouble For Coffee, Drought and Disease, Send Prices Up

"If you're drinking a cup of coffee right now, treasure it. The global supply of coffee beans may soon shrink because of problems in coffee-growing areas of Brazil and Central America."

"With supply threatened and demand strong, prices are taking flight.Wholesale coffee prices are up more than 60 percent since January — from $1.25 per pound of bulk Coffea arabica beans to $1.85 this week."

"The biggest market-moving force is a drought in Brazil, the world's biggest coffee producer."

"Lindsey Bolger, vice president of coffee sourcing for Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, says the damage left behind by the drought is not always obvious."

Six Words You've   To Be Taught: Intolerance

"NPR continues a series of conversations about The Race Card Project, where thousands of people have submitted their thoughts on race and cultural identity in six words. Every so often, NPR Host/Special Correspondent Michele Norris will dip into those six-word stories to explore issues surrounding race and cultural identity for Morning Edition."

"'You've Got To Be Carefully Taught.' Those six words form the title of a song from Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein's South Pacific, the wildly popular musical revolving around cross-cultural love affairs in the South Pacific during World War II."

"That phrase — "You've got to be carefully taught" — is also a popular entry in The Race Card Project's inbox. More than a dozen people have offered submissions quoting those six words in some way."

Have $32,840 to Spare? Enjoy your Flight.

"The summer vacation season is upon us. I got an early start today, heading up the road to the Jersey Shore, also known as Springsteen country, also known, to me, as home."

"My goal is to have — for a few glory days — no goals! Unless you want to count enjoying time with my family, scanning the sea for dolphins, reading novels and eating thin-crust pizza made in the delicious way that my beautiful, adopted state of Virginia just doesn't get. I'm excited already."

"One extra benefit is that it doesn't cost $32,840 to get there. OK, it's not likely to cost anyone I know $32,840 to get anywhere, including the beaches of the Garden State."

Tropical Storms Peak Strength Nearer Poles, Study Says

"Tropical storms are migrating out of the tropics, reaching their peak intensity in higher latitudes, where larger populations are concentrated, a new NOAA-led study published in the journal Nature says."

"Each decade for the past 30 years, tropical cyclones — which include hurricanes and typhoons — have become strongest on average about 30 to 40 miles farther north or south of the equator, the study says."

"In a statement on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's website, the agency says:

'As tropical cyclones move into higher latitudes, some regions closer to the equator may experience reduced risk, while coastal populations and infrastructure pole-ward of the tropics may experience increased risk. With their devastating winds and flooding, tropical cyclones can especially endanger coastal cities not adequately prepared for them.'"

Christopher Columbus' Ship The Santa Maria May Have Been Found

"It's been missing for more than 500 years. But now there are reports that the Santa Maria, the largest ship among the trio that made Christopher Columbus' first expedition to North America, may be found. Undersea explorer Barry Clifford says he thinks he has found the ship in waters off of Haiti's coast."

"'All the geographical, underwater topography and archaeological evidence strongly suggests that this wreck is Columbus' famous flagship, the Santa Maria,' Clifford tells Britain's The Independent. 'The Haitian government has been extremely helpful — and we now need to continue working with them to carry out a detailed archaeological excavation of the wreck.'"

Clifford is a well-known wreck hunter, having found the pirate ship and former slave vessel the Whydah, which sank off the coast of Cape Cod in 1717. That discovery led to a project with National Geographic.

Melting of Antarctic Ice Sheet Might Be Unstoppable

"Scientists have long worried about climate change-induced melting of the huge West Antarctic Ice Sheet. Now they say that not only is the disintegration of the ice already underway, but that it's likely unstoppable."

"That means that in the coming centuries, global sea levels will rise by anywhere from 4 to 12 feet. As NPR's Nell Greenfieldboyce reports, that's a larger increase than the United Nations expert panel noted last year. But it would occur over a longer time frame — centuries instead of decades."

"Ian Joughin, a glaciologist at the University of Washington in Seattle, says people have been speculating that the West Antarctic Ice Sheet is unstable since the 1970s."

One Collectors Plan to Save Realistic Art Was Anything But Abstract

"Plenty of collectors want to donate artworks to museums, but the museums don't always welcome them with open arms. "We say 'no thanks' 19 times out of 20," says Betsy Broun, director at the American Art Museum. Sometimes the works aren't museum-quality, other times they don't fit with the museums' philosophy."

"But in 1986, representatives from the Sara Roby Foundation called the Smithsonian with an offer it couldn't refuse: paintings by Edward Hopper, Raphael Soyer, Reginald Marsh and many more. They were all collected by Roby, who, in the early 1950s, who took on a mission: to save Realistic art from the maws of Abstract Expressionism. The results of her dedication are on display at the Smithsonian's American Art Museum."

When A Cholesterol Test Becomes A Vice Instead of a Virtue

"If you ask me to boil down the modern doctor-patient relationship to its most basic elements, cholesterol pretty much sums it up."

"No single concept has permeated American medical culture to the extent of our anxiety about cholesterol."

"It doesn't matter if you're old or young, male or female, rich or poor, educated or not. Whether you love American-style high-tech medical care or forswear it for an Eastern-oriented herbal approach, patients from all perspectives come to me and fret about their cholesterol."

Even Penguins Get Flu

"When you think of bird flu, you may conjure up images of chickens being slaughtered to stem an outbreak, or of migrating ducks, which can carry flu viruses from one continent to the next. Well, it's time to add penguins to your list of mental images."

"Yes, Adelie penguins, which breed in huge colonies on the rocky Antarctic Peninsula, also harbor a version of the avian influenza virus, according to a study published in the journal, mBio."

"Fret not. If a penguin happens to sneeze on you, you aren't going to get the flu. And, happily for the crowded colonies of nesting penguins, the avian influenza virus in their midst doesn't seem to make penguins sick, either."

Ancient Landscape Is Found Under Two Miles of Ice in Greenland

"In a surprising discovery, scientists have found evidence of a tundra landscape in Greenland that's millions of years old. The revelation goes against widely held ideas about how some glaciers work, and it suggests that at least parts of Greenland's ice sheet had survived periods of global warming intact."

"'Glaciers are commonly thought to work like a belt sander,' a news release from the University of Vermont says. 'As they move over the land they scrape off everything — vegetation, soil and even the top layer of bedrock.'"

"That's why researchers from several universities and NASA say they were "greatly surprised" to find signs that an ancient tundra had been preserved beneath 2 miles of ice in Greenland, in a study that was published this week in the journal Science."

Far From Infinitesimal: A Mathematical Paradox's Role in History

"Here's a stumper: How many parts can you divide a line into?"

"It seems like a simple question. You can cut it in half. Then you can cut those lines in half, then cut those lines in half again. Just how many parts can you make? A hundred? A billion? Why not more?"

"You can keep on dividing forever, so every line has an infinite amount of parts. But how long are those parts? If they're anything greater than zero, then the line would seem to be infinitely long. And if they're zero, well, then no matter how many parts there are, the length of the line would still be zero."

"That's the paradox lurking behind calculus. The fight over how to resolve it had a surprisingly large role in the wars and disputes that produced modern Europe, according to a new book called Infinitesimal: How a Dangerous Mathematical Theory Shaped the Modern World, by UCLA historian Amir Alexander."

Can WalMart Really Make Organic Food Cheap For Everyone

"It could be another milestone in organic food's evolution from crunchy to commercial: Wal-Mart, the king of mass retailing, is promising to "drive down organic food prices" with a new line of organic food products. The new products will be at least 25 percent cheaper than organic food that's on Wal-Mart's shelves right now."

"Yet we've heard this before. Back in 2006, Wal-Mart made a similar announcement, asking some of its big suppliers to deliver organic versions of popular food items like mac-and-cheese. A Wal-Mart executive said at the time that it hoped these organic products would cost only 10 percent more than the conventional alternative."

"Wal-Mart has, in fact, become a big player in organic food, with some remarkable cost-cutting successes. At the new Wal-Mart just a few blocks from NPR's headquarters, I found some organic grape tomatoes on sale for exactly the same price as conventional ones. Organic 'spring mix' salad was just 9 percent more expensive than the conventional package."

Scientists Spot A Planet That Looks Like Earth's Cousin

"Scientists who have been hunting for another Earth beyond our solar system have come across a planet that's remarkably similar to our world."

"It's almost the same size as Earth, and it orbits in its star's "Goldilocks zone" — where temperatures are not too hot, not too cold, and maybe just right for life."

"But a lot about this planet is going to remain a mystery, because it's 500 light-years away."

"Researchers detected the planet while poring over data collected by NASA's Kepler Space Telescope. The telescope spent years staring at 150,000 stars, watching for telltale dips in brightness that might mean a planet was circling around a star."

How Do We Explain the Evolution of Religion

"Religion is a cross-cultural universal, even though not every human being professes faith in God or some other supernatural being. Those of us who are atheist or agnostic make up 6 percent of the American population. A further 14 percent say they are not affiliated with any particular religion."

"But religiosity is found in every human culture and biologists, anthropologists, and psychologists keenly debate how it arose. Just like language, technology and bipedalism, religion too evolved over time. But how did that happen?"

"In a new paper published online in the journal Animal Behaviour, biologists Bernard Crespi and Kyle Summers ask a specific version of this question: 

'How did religion actually originate and evolve, step by small step, with Darwinian continuity and explicable selective pressures mediating each stage?'"

Under Streets of Naples: A Way Out For Local Kids

"For decades, the streets of Naples have been menaced by the Camorra mafia — stroll the streets of Sanità, an inner-city neighborhood, and you'll overhear pop songs like O Panar e Drog, featuring a singer boasting about buying and using "a breadbasket full" of drugs off Sanità's streets."

"But underneath those cobblestones lies a gem of early Christian art: The Catacombs of San Gennaro. Now, a local priest is trying to bring the mafia and the art together."

"When Don Antonio Loffredo arrived here about a decade ago, he found three levels of frescoes, chapels and cubicles beneath the neighborhood's trash-strewn streets. It's a burial ground that dates to the 2nd century, the largest of its kind in southern Italy. But back then, tourists only wound up in this part of town by mistake."

T-Rex To Reveal Itself At the Smithsonian

"This week, scientists at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History will start unpacking some rare and precious cargo. It's something the Smithsonian has never had before — a nearly complete skeleton of a Tyrannosaurus rex."

"Most people don't know it, but the T. rex that's standing tall in the Natural History Museum in Washington, D.C., is a fake — a cast, a copy of the bones. It's an accurate replica, but for decades the Smithsonian has coveted a real skeleton of a T. rex — the charismatic, 30-foot-long beast that's not only deliciously frightening to contemplate but also fascinating to scientists."

"How did such an animal grow so large? How fast did it run? Was it a predator or a scavenger?"

Where's the Whole Grain In Most Of Our Wheat Bread

"We've all heard the advice to eat more whole grains, and cut back on refined starches."

"And there's good reason. Compared with a diet heavy on refined grains, like white flour, a diet rich in whole grains — which includes everything from brown rice to steel-cut oats to farro — is linked to lower rates of heart disease, certain cancers and Type 2 diabetes."

"So when it comes to choosing bread, experts say, you want to move away from the white loaves in the grocery aisle. That's because white flour is a high-glycemic food — like sugar."

Climate Change Adjustments Must Be Fast and Large

"A new report from the United Nations' panel on climate change says major action is needed, and fast, if policy makers want to limit global warming to acceptable levels."

"There's an international target to control climate change: keeping the global temperature rise to just two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels—that's 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change now says it's technically possible to meet that goal. But doing so will require rapid, large-scale shifts in energy production and use."

"Greenhouse gas emissions will have to drop 40 to 70 percent by 2050 — and then drop even more, to nearly zero by the end of this century — the report says."

A Debut Symphony That Embraced the World

"Conducting Gustav Mahler's First Symphony is an exhilarating and demanding task. Although it's one of his shortest symphonies (at about 55 minutes), it is an epic journey that requires countless hours of analysis and examination of the score. Still, it is a thrilling process to peel back and reassemble the many layers of Mahler's music."

"As the re-creator, my challenge is to discover the narrative of the piece and then figure out why Mahler wrote every note, why he chose every musical gesture and how each one fits into the overarching story."

"A starting point for me is to try to understand the context of the composer's life, both personal and societal. Mahler's career was coming into full swing at a monumental moment in history — the dawn of the 20th century. Just think of it: The first use of the word automobile occurs in 1898; the Wright brothers make their first successful flight in 1903; Einstein first proposes his theory of relativity in 1905; the first movies are made; the first subways constructed and Sigmund Freud emerges with his revolutionary views on the human psyche."

This Jet-Lag App Does the Math So You'll Feel Better Faster

"Jet lag is nobody's idea of fun. A bunch of mathematicians say they can make the adjustment less painful with a smartphone app that calculates the swiftest way to adjust."

"Users plug in the time zone they're traveling to, and the app will do the calculations before spitting out a schedule specifying when the user should stay in bright light, low light or be in the dark, says Olivia Walch, a graduate student at the University of Michigan who designed the app."

"'The conventional wisdom is for every hour you're shifting, it's about a day of adjustment,' Walch says. So Washington, D.C., travelers going to Hong Kong — a 12-hour time difference — could take up to 12 days to adjust. The app can reduce that time to roughly four or five days, the inventors say."