A while back, Brooklyn native Ben Popper stepped into a piercing parlor near Pittsburgh for an appointment. He wasn't getting an earring, though. He was getting a small magnet implanted in his finger.

Seventy-five years ago today, music was transformed forever. It was the day the Electro String Corporation awarded the first-ever electric guitar patent. Rudy Pensa, a guitar expert and the owner of Rudy’s Music in Manhattan, explores the history of the electric guitar and its evolution into modern culture.

Over the past few weeks, we’ve been talking about the Olympics, but before there was Michael Phelps or Ryan Lochte, there was Lynne Cox. And while she’s no Olympic gold medalist, she did break down barriers when she swam across the Bering Straight, from the island of Little Diomede in Alaska to Big Diomede, then part of the Soviet Union.

He's young, good looking, and has a mohawk bespeckled with bleached blonde stars. He's also the flight director of the Mars Science laboratory Curiosity Mission at the Jet propulsion Lab in California. Bobak Ferdowsi discusses the Curiosity landing and his new found celebrity.

The Wall Street bank Goldman Sachs has faced intense scrutiny for its alleged involvement in the types of dodgy mortgage deals that led to the 2008 financial crisis. But after an extensive investigation, the Justice Department has announced that won't prosecute Goldman Sachs or its employees for alleged wrongdoing.

Every Friday, a panel of experts discuss and reflect on the week's top stories. This week, Farai Chideya reflects on the week in politics; documentary filmmaker Valarie Kaur follows the aftermath of the Sikh Temple shooting in Oak Creek, Wisconsin; and BBC Correspondent Rob Broomby wraps up the second week of the Olympics.

Amardeep Kaleka's father was killed in the horrific shooting at the Wisconsin Sikh temple on Sunday that left seven people dead including the gunman. His father, Satwant Singh Kaleka, was the temple president.

There's more trouble unfolding this week in Egypt, as its newly elected president, Mohamed Morsi, confronts violence in the Sinai Peninsula. Sixteen Egyptian soldiers were killed Sunday by shooters, and on Tuesday night, gunmen fired on up to seven government checkpoints in what appears to be a carefully planned attack.

When Wade Michael Page allegedly attacked the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin this past weekend, many were shocked by his identification as a neo-Nazi. Wade, however, is not the first neo-Nazi veteran to have committed murder in the United States.

Many of the air attacks conducted by the United States since the commencement of air warfare have gone under the radar. That was, until 45-year-old Minnesota native and former Lieutenant Colonel Jenns Robertson decided to make a project of documenting each and every bomb that the United States has ever dropped.

Several primaries in the coming weeks will steal the spotlight, however briefly, from Washington, D.C. Takeaway Washington correspondent Todd Zwillich tells us which races to watch.

Jim Rogers, an American investor and chairman of Rogers Holdings and Beeland Interest, has seen banking scandals in 2002. And in 2008. And he says the cyclical pattern of economic downturns will almost definitely produce one in the next year or two.

The current states of some national parks, despite our country's efforts to conserve them, are still threatened by climate changes. In the future, they may be radically different, especially the parks primarily composed of glaciers and snow.

Now that the confusion and conflicting reports of this weekend's shooting in Wisconsin have settled, we're beginning to learn more about the alleged gunman who carried out the attack. His name was Wade Michael Page, and according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, he was a "frustrated neo-Nazi" and a member of two racist skinhead bands.

Is there too much Olympic fever in China? The country leads the Olympic medal count in London, but in the wake of last week's badminton scandal about throwing individual matches, and the country's horrified response to hurdler Liu Xiang's fall today, there's an internal debate going on about whether China is overly-obsessed with gold medals.

Sunday’s shooting in Oak Creek, Wisconsin is not the first act of violence perpetrated against the Sikh community in recent years. But now, like so many other American minorities, Sikhs are in the position of having to explain to their children that regardless of their beliefs and values, the world will judge them based on their appearance.

The human brain and our consciousness — they have been mystical and exotic topics that many a scientist has tried again and again to understand.  Neuroscientist Guilio Tononi, a psychiatrist at the University of Wisconsin, is one of these scientists.

Jamaican pride is spreading faster than, well, a 100-meter dash. On Sunday the world watched as Jamaican-born sprinters Usain Bolt and Yohan Blake competed for gold and the title of fastest man in the world. Today also marks the 50th anniversary of Jamaica's independence.

Paralympian John Register reacts to Oscar Pistorius's performance and what it means for disabled athletes and for the future of the Paralympics.

This year's winner of the Google Science Fair is Brittany Wenger, a 17-year-old high school student from Florida. For her award-winning scientific project, Brittany used her knowledge of computer programming in order to help doctors diagnose breast cancer.