Searching the entire sky for the secrets to our universe
A new telescope could launch as early as late February. SPHEREx will look into deep space and also search for organic molecules.
Human Interest
Weekly audio documentary: Imagining a call to a groundbreaking autobiographer
Producer Sara Zarreh tells the story of Margery Kempe, believed to be the first woman to write an autobiography in the English language, more than five hundred years ago.
What happened when Richard Nixon wanted more control over interest rates
This is a tale of a president pressuring the head of the central bank for political reasons. Burns fights it, then capitulates, and it lays the foundation for later inflation.
NASA instructs employees to remove pronouns from all work communications
An email seen by NPR says the move is to comply with a presidential order to "restore biological truth" to the government.
U.K.'s foreign office cat Palmerston shows up for duty in Bermuda
The former rescue feline joined the British diplomatic service in 2016 and gained a large following online for fulfilling his duty with charisma. He retired in 2020 but is back in action now.
The U.S. built a military base on Greenland without permission during the Cold War
President Trump has been talking about taking over Greenland from Denmark. It wasn't long ago that the U.S. secretly built a military base there, without seeking permission from the Danish.
A violinist unpacks the magic in a multi-million-dollar violin
A Stradivarius crafted in 1714 goes up for auction this week. Sotheby's expects it to fetch between $12 and $18 million.
A brief history of Gaza's tortured role in the Middle East conflict
Most Gaza residents are the descendants of Palestinian refugees driven to the enclave in a 1948 war. They harbor a deep fear of being uprooted again, and President Trump's remarks struck a raw nerve.
The moon's grand canyons were carved in the blink of an eye
The Earth's Grand Canyon took millions of years to carve, but the moon's grand canyons took about ten minutes.
What Americans can learn from the story of Russia's oligarchs
As Trump surrounds himself with tech billionaires, NPR's Steve Inskeep speaks with journalist David Hoffman about Russia's history, in which a few wealthy men grew very close to political power.