In the most anticipated rover landing in a generation, NASA landed its Mars Curiosity Rover on Mars at 1:31 am EST this morning. Curiosity will remain on Mars for two years, trying to find a signs that the planet can support life.

As severe drought covers about two-thirds of the country, more than half of all U.S. counties have been designated primary disaster areas by the Department of Agriculture.

"Latch on NYC," a program which will roll into effect September 3, will require that infants not be supplemented with formula unless it’s indicated on their medical records. But is this the best way to encourage breast-feeding?

The United States Postal Service is approaching a $5 billion default. Suddenly, officials are saying we might have to drastically restructure our mail program, but the post office says it could all be avoided with a vote by the House of Representatives. Is there a solution in sight?

In September, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors will vote on a proposal to reduce the minimum apartment size to 150 square feet. Will 'spacious' and 'urban' soon be completely mutually exclusive?

There is an 82 percent accuracy rate when the S&P stocks rise in an election year, the incumbent President wins, and if prices fall he will lose. Charlie Herman, business and economics editor for WNYC, joins the show to discuss how market numbers seem to influence voters.

When London was preparing for the Olympics amidst the global recession, London’s Olympic Committee wanted a new kind of facility, an arena that could be completely transformed after the Games. And that was the challenge facing architect Rod Sheard, when his firm, Populous, was commissioned to design a 'temporary' Olympic stadium.

Eight Olympic badminton players have been disqualified from the Olympics for trying to lose. The ruling came this morning after three teams "adjusted" to a change in the Olympic rules that provided an incentive for players to lose strategically.

It looks like the United States has its first gymnastics dream team since the “Magnificent Seven” in 1996. Dominique Moceano, the youngest member of the “Magnificent Seven” shares her thoughts on this year’s team, and takes a closer look at this year’s highlights. 

Few embraced their place in American culture with such passion and relish. Gore Vidal was the ultimate man of letters who once said "There is no human problem which could not be solved if people would simply do as I advise."

While the detonation of the atomic bomb in 1945 brought about death and destruction, the labs that created this bomb remain quiet and peaceful, albeit largely unseen. A bill in Congress may make these sites national parks, upping their tourism value and ensuring their preservation.

While President Obama has officially ended the War on Iraq and is in the process of withdrawing troops from Afghanistan, for many veterans the war is far from over. An estimated 350,000 veterans will return home with PTSD, making it difficult for them to readjust to civilian life.

It’s been 30 years since the Individual Retirement Account model, or the 401(k), became the standard way for Americans to save for retirement. And it has failed — or so says Teresa Ghilarducci, professor of economics at the New School for Social Research.

The fact that Holmes was seeing a psychiatrist prior to the theatre shooting in Aurora, Colorado, is a fact that has emerged in the past few days. Should his psychiatrist be required to disclose private information about her patient? And, had she known in advance that Holmes struggled with violent thoughts and delusions, should she have alerted police?

In his recent editorial for our partner the New York Times, professor Andrew Hacker asks “is Algebra necessary?” The millions of high school students and college freshmen taking mandatory mathematics, he argues, aren’t actually learning much aside from tapping those calculators.

Angy Rivera came to the U.S. when she was three years old as an undocumented immigrant. Angy’s 21 now and writes the first and only undocumented immigrant advice column, "Ask Angy," where she responds to questions about “coming out” as undocumented.

According to the Red Cross, 37 percent of Americans say they’re not good swimmers, and 13 percent say they can’t swim at all. While those numbers are bad, they're even worse in minority communities.

Two centuries ago, Russia and Britain fought a war of influence over a region that rarely makes headlines: Central Asia. Today, a new game of influence is taking place in that same region, this time between the U.S., Russia and China. 

The fighting in Syria has flared up in the quiet city Aleppo, where scores of civilians are beginning to flee the constant shelling. Government forces have launched an offensive there, relentlessly shelling many neighborhoods in Syria's second-largest city.

The London Olympics Opening Ceremonies is called 'Isles of Wonder' and draws inspiration from Shakespeare's The Tempest and is expected to be watched by a global audience of one billion.