100-Year-Old Message In a Bottle Plucked From Baltic Sea

"On a nature hike along Germany's Baltic Coast in 1913, 20-year-old Richard Platz scrawled a note on a postcard, shoved it into a brown beer bottle, corked it and tossed it into the sea."

"Where it traveled, no one knows for sure, but it was pulled out of the Baltic Sea by a fisherman last month not far from where Platz first pitched it."

"It's thought to be the world's oldest message in a bottle."

How   Studies Lead Medical Research Down Dead Ends

"Most experimental drugs fail before they make it through all the tests required to figure out if they actually work and if they're safe. But some drugs get fairly far down that road, at the cost of hundreds of millions of dollars, based on poorly conducted studies at the outset."

"Medical researchers reviewing this sorry state of affairs say the drug-development process needs serious improvement."

"Consider drugs that are being developed to treat ALS, or Lou Gehrig's disease. In the past decade or so, nine potential drugs have been tested in people who have this degenerative nerve disorder. Not one has been effective."

Is Anti-Gravity Possible?

"By now you've probably heard about Neil deGrasse Tyson's reboot of Cosmos, running every Sunday night on FOX (yes, that FOX) for the last few weeks. It was a controversial step to take Carl Sagan's beloved early 1980s-era tour of the universe and revamp it for the modern era. According to most reviews (and an informal poll of my astrophysicist colleagues), so far it looks like Neil is doing St. Carl (as I like to think of him) proud, giving a whole new generation of viewers a big picture view of ... well ... the big picture."

"But what happens after the last eye-popping rendering of the Milky Way fades from viewers' flat-screens and Tyson's teardrop-shaped starship sails off into the distance? Where do folks turn who — like the monk-philosopher Giordano Bruno featured in episode 1 — are hungry to learn even more?"

"The answer is simple. Once their journey with Neil is over they can begin a new one with Brian. That's Brian Greene, the string-theorist-turned-writer who, along with Tyson, is one of the few people in the world who can honestly lay claim to the title "super-famous scientist." This month Greene launched the World Science U (WSU) with the goal of offering an online destination for people with big questions and an appetite for big answers."

NASA Confirms A Lake Superior On Saturn's Moon Enceladus

After finding tantalizing clues that liquid water once flowed on Mars (and may still exist under the surface), of water ice on the moon and an ocean under thick ice on Jupiter's moon Europa, NASA has confirmed the existence of liquid on yet another moon, Saturn's tiny Enceladus.

And of course, what is most exciting to scientists is that where there's water — particularly liquid water — there just might be life.

As NPR's Nell Greenfieldboyce reports, NASA's Cassini probe has been studying Saturn and its moons for about a decade, and that it transmitted images of Enceladus in 2005 that looked promising: "Water vapor and ice was spewing out of its south polar region, where scientists saw long fractures that they nicknamed tiger stripes," she says.

What Universe Is this Anyway?

"Let's take a walk on the wild side and assume, for the sake of argument, that our universe is not the only one; let's say there are many others, possibly infinitely many, "out there." The totality of this bizarre ensemble is what cosmologists call the "multiverse," a hypothesis that sounds more mythic than scientific, a conceptual troublemaker that inspires some and outrages others."

"It all started in the 1980s, when physicists Andrei Linde, from Stanford University, and Alex Vilenkin, from Tufts University, independently proposed that if the universe underwent a very fast expansion early on in its existence — what is called an inflationary expansion — then our universe is not the only one."

Is That Another Wave of Collapse Headed Our Way

"As we found out on Monday, the universe appears to be filled with the rippling remains of an early period of ultrafast expansion, a discovery that ushers a new era of observations that will take us right up to the beginning of time. (Also: read Adam's post.)"

"The details still need to be scrutinized (and, believe me, they will!) by the scientific community. The possibility of errors — even if valiantly dealt with by the BICEP2 team — must be ironed out. And other experiments will need to confirm the numbers. But this is very exciting news indeed, something that doesn't happen often in a single lifetime."

"How lucky we are to have found the Higgs boson and evidence of gravitational waves from inflation within a two-year period!"

How the Cost of College Went From Affordable to Sky High

"If you want to get an earful about paying for college, listen to parents from states where tuition and fees have skyrocketed in the last five years. In Arizona, for example, parents have seen a 77 percent increase in costs. In Georgia, it's 75 percent, and in Washington state, 70 percent."

"Even in Oklahoma, where tuition increases have been among the lowest in the nation, parents are dismayed. In Stillwater, Okla., Jeffery Corbett's daughter is attending community college. Corbett, a fundraiser for a nonprofit, says a high school diploma just won't get you very far. And he knows; he doesn't have a college degree."

"'I think about it all the time, because I realize [how] it has limited me, by not having that piece of paper,' he says."

Why You Won't Win Warren Buffett's Billion Dollar Bracket

"The men's NCAA college basketball tournament starts next week."

"In a twist on the familiar March Madness bracket, a mortgage company and a world-famous investor are offering a billion dollars to anyone who picks the winner of all 63 games in the NCAA college basketball tournament."

"It's a contest, and it may also be the perfect publicity stunt."

"Let's introduce the players. There's Quicken Loans, the mortgage company that's sponsoring the contest. And there's investor Warren Buffett — he's the insurance man here, willing to pay out the $1 billion if someone wins."

"Then there's Yahoo — you need one of its accounts to enter. Finally, there's as many as 15 million people who are expected to sign up to play.'

Rethinking the Five-Second-Rule With Carpet: There's No Rush

"Many of us will happily eat a gummy bear or cookie after it falls on the floor, as long as we snatch it up quickly. Say, five seconds or less, right?"

"Well, science just gave us another excuse to continue this food-saving habit, especially when it comes to carpet-dusted snacks."

"Biology students at the Aston University in Birmingham, U.K., measured how quickly two common bacteria hop aboard foods dropped on tiles, linoleum and carpet."

"Their findings support the idea that there really is such a thing as the five-second rule for moist snacks, such as wet pasta and sticky gummy bears."

Wake Up and Smell the Caffeine: Its a Powerful Drug

"Many of us can barely make it through the morning without first downing a cup of hot coffee. It's become such a big part of our daily rituals that few actually give much thought to what it is that we're putting in our bodies."

"To help us break down the little-known things about caffeine, NPR's David Greene spoke with Murray Carpenter, author of Caffeinated: How Our Daily Habit Helps, Hurts and Hooks Us. These are the things you probably aren't thinking about as you wait in line at your local coffee shop."

"In its essential form, caffeine is a bitter white powder derived from a natural insecticide found in some plants. Over the years, it became acknowledged as a drug after people independently discovered its stimulating effect."

Without World War I A Slower US Rise No God Bless America

All Things Considered host Robert Siegel put the hypothetical question to historians and other experts: Ned Lebow, author of Archduke Franz Ferdinand Lives!, Margaret MacMillan, author of The War That Ended Peace, Kim Kowalke, a musicologist at the Eastman School of Music, Phil Atteberry of the University of Pittsburgh and Christopher Clark, author of The Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went to War.

Some highlights from their counterfactual history:

• The United States' rise to world power would have been slower, but it would have been more willing to intervene in conflicts in other parts of the world.
• American identity would be slower to take shape because ethnic groups would continue to identify with their homelands, customs and languages.
• Without a century of European turmoil, the U.S. wouldn't have hosted a century of European emigre artists and composers — no Arnold Schoenberg, Igor Stravinsky, Paul Hindemith, Bela Bartok or Kurt Weill, among others.

A World Without World War I Featuring Music Man Lenin and Herbalist Hitler

"This week, All Things Considered is exploring a counterfactual history of World  War I, and we invite you to participate. Use the form below to imagine how one aspect of the past 100 years would be different if Archduke Franz Ferdinand had not been killed in 1914. We will share some of the responses in a future segment."

"This summer marks 100 years since the start of World War I. Many argue that the conflict was inevitable — but what if it wasn't?"

"Without the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, there would have been no need for rulers in Vienna to threaten Serbia, no need for Russia to come to Serbia's defense, no need for Germany to come to Austria's defense — and no call for France and Britain to honor their treaties with Russia."

"What would be the ripples of this counter-history?"

The Great Snowy Owl Invasion

"This is Hungerford, a large female snowy owl. Last summer she was just a hatchling — a gray ball of fuzz in the middle of the Arctic tundra. In the fall, newly equipped with adult plumage, she flew thousands of miles south until she reached the coast of Maryland. And this winter, she became an important part of an unprecedented research project."

"Snowy owls are among the largest birds in North America, but scientists know very little about their behavior. The owls spend most of their days far from humans, hunting rodents and birds in the flat expanses of the Arctic Circle. In the winter, the owls move south, but they don't usually reach the United States. Most years, only a few are spotted in the northernmost states — a rare treat for birders. But this winter was different."

'Sherlock,' 'House of Cards' Top China's Must Watch List

"What do an eccentric British detective, a cut-throat Washington pol and a bunch of nerds at Caltech have in common?"

"They are characters in some of the most popular foreign TV shows in China."

"Over the past five years, The Big Bang Theory alone has been streamed more than 1.3 billion times. To appreciate how much some young Chinese love the BBC series, Sherlock, step inside 221B Baker Street. That's Holmes' fictitious address in London as well as the name of a café that opened last year in Shanghai's former French Concession."

The Soul of the World's Most Expensive Violin

"The Vieuxtemps Guarneri is a violin that is older than the United States of America — 273 years old, to be exact. It recently became the most expensive violin in the world, selling for an estimated $16 million. Its new owner anonymously donated the historic instrument to violinist Anne Akiko Meyers, on loan for the rest of her life."

"Meyers joined Morning Edition guest host Linda Wertheimer in NPR's studios to demonstrate the historic instrument's unique character and the extraordinary gamut of color it is able to produce."

"'I had to try it, and instantly fell in love,' Meyers says. 'It was an incredible chemistry that occurred.'"

Re-Released Recording Reveal Literary Titans In Their Youth

"You can listen to plenty of actors performing the works of William Shakespeare. But imagine if you could hear the voice of the young playwright himself — or the older one, for that matter — reading his own writing aloud."

"Well, we can't take you back that far. But in the early 1960s, when recorded readings by authors were rare, a young couple in Boston decided to be literary audio pioneers."

"The idea was hatched in 1962. Lynne Sharon Schwartz, who is a respected novelist today, was working on a magazine at the time. Her husband, Harry, was at the Boston Redevelopment Authority. They were avid readers, Lynne Sharon Schwartz says: 'And we were just hanging out with friends and talking about the major or the young, up-and-coming writers of their day. We were aware of Caedmon, which had brought out the Dylan Thomas record of A Child's Christmas In Wales. And we thought, we could do something like that.'"

Virus Locked in Siberian Ice For 30,000 Years Is Revived In Lab

"Scientists at a laboratory in France have thawed out and revived an ancient virus found in the Siberian permafrost, making it infectious again for the first time in 30,000 years."

"The giant virus known as Pithovirus sibericum was discovered about 100 feet deep in coastal tundra. The pathogen infects tiny amoebas — simple, one-celled organisms."

"It isn't dangerous to humans, but its reanimation raises questions about what else might be lurking under the ice, says the French and Russian team that brought it back to life. Their work is in the latest issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences."

When War Torn Rubble Met Royal Imagination Became Paris

"Today, Paris is a city of light and romance, full of broad avenues, picturesque bridges and countless tourists visiting to soak in its charms."

"But the French capital wasn't always a stylish destination, says historian Joan DeJean. She's written about all things French and fashionable, from the birth of luxury goods to the rise of the celebrity hair stylist (which began during the terribly chic reign of Louis XIV). In her new book, How Paris Became Paris, DeJean starts with a look at the dismal condition of Paris in the late 1500s. The long wars between Protestants and Catholics had ended, but the toll on the city had been immense."

"It was a city torn apart by warfare. Paris at that time is so desolate, so burned out, that contemporary observers talk about wolves roaming freely in the streets of the city, DeJean tells NPR's Renee Montagne. 'Paris was also a city largely empty: huge spaces of empty terrain everywhere in the city. And the new king, Henry IV, had a lot of imagination and energy.'"

Evidence of Marijuana's Health Effects Is Hazy At Best

"Colorado opened its first pot stores in January, and adults in Washington state will be able to walk into a store and buy marijuana this summer. But this legalization of recreational marijuana is taking place without much information on the possible health effects."

"'We should have been doing a lot more research to find out just how useful it is, how it affects the brain, et cetera, et cetera,' according to Dr. Herbert Kleber, a Columbia University psychiatrist and drug abuse researcher."

"But he says it's been hard to study the effects of Cannabis sativa, the plant that produces marijuana."

Neil deGrasse Tyson Explains Why the Cosmos Shouldn't Make You Feel Small

"When it comes to 'callings' we usually think of people who feel drawn to religious career paths. But if you ask Neil deGrasse Tyson how he became an astrophysicist he says: 'I think the universe called me. I feel like I had no say in the matter.'"

"Tyson, director of the Hayden Planetarium at the Museum of Natural History in New York, is a prolific writer and frequently cited authority on astronomy in the popular media. He's hosted a four-part series on Novaand appeared everywhere from The Tonight Show to The Daily Show."

"This spring, Tyson hosts a new TV series called Cosmos: A Space-Time Odyssey. It's an update of the influential 1980 PBS series Cosmos: A Personal Journey. Tyson was entering graduate school in astrophysics at the time and remembers watching Carl Sagan host the original Cosmos."