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Layers of wax in the marine mammals' ears can be read like tree rings, scientists say, recording a whale's age and also information about pollutants in the water the whale swam through.

The cruise ship, which ran aground in January 2012 off the coast of Tuscany, will be stabilized and checked to make sure it can make it through the harsh winter. In the spring, the vessel will be floated to a scrap yard.

For online insurance brokers, selling health insurance through the Affordable Care Act presents a new opportunity — and a new competitor. It's unclear who will come out ahead: the businesses, with more experience, or the feds, who won't charge commissions.

Each summer, the rice farmers of Narita, Japan, gather to pray for bountiful harvests with dancing, music and elaborate festival carts. This year, some farmers feel their way of life is under threat from a major trade agreement.

Farmers say they need to produce food as efficiently as possible in order to feed the world. It's high-tech agriculture's claim to the moral high ground in the debate over how best to grow food. But is it true?

President Obama has called many times for the ouster of the Syrian president. But now Bashar Assad is seen as necessary to oversee the destruction of the country's chemical weapons supply. One analyst sums up the U.S. policy as, "We want him to go, but not right now."

U.N. weapons inspectors have issued their report on last month's chemical weapons attack in Syria. Anthony Cordesman, of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, tells Steve Inskeep that the report bolsters U.S. and European charges that the Assad regime deployed the sarin gas.

Many laid-off workers continue the insurance they got on the job by paying for it themselves through an expensive option known as COBRA. The health insurance exchanges that open in October are likely to be a cheaper source for health coverage.

Blogging and social media force us to think in public, says writer Clive Thompson, and that is making us smarter. It can make students quicker writers too, he says.

Twenty percent of high school seniors say they binge drink, with 6 percent consuming 15 drinks or more in a row. This extreme binge drinking accounts for high rates of emergency room visits by teen drinkers, researchers say, and poses a health risk that until now hasn't been adequately measured.