Researchers at Stanford University announced this week that they've created genetic receptors that can act as a sort of "biological computer," potentially revolutionizing how diseases are treated.

In a paper published in the journal "Science" on Friday, the team described their system of genetic transistors, which can be inserted into living cells and turned on and off if certain conditions are met. The researchers hope these transistors could eventually be built into microscopic living computers. Said computers would be able to accomplish tasks like telling if a certain toxin is present inside a cell, seeing how many times a cancerous cell has divided or determining precisely how an administered drug interacts with each individual cell...

An FBI agent sat quietly in the lobby of the Red River Women’s Clinic on Thursday morning, arms folded across his lap, waiting for the director of North Dakota’s only abortion provider to wrap up a local television interview, her umpteenth media appearance in the past few days. The agent asked to speak to Tammi Kromenaker privately, so she escorted him back to one of the few places in the small two-story building with a closed door, and they talked.

Just a courtesy call, the agent told Kromenaker; to let her know he was the person to contact should anyone decide to violate the federal law that prevents people from trying to stop women seeking an abortion from getting into a clinic...

A mysterious malady that has been killing honeybees en masse for several years appears to have expanded drastically in the last year, commercial beekeepers say, wiping out 40 percent or even 50 percent of the hives needed to pollinate many of the nation’s fruits and vegetables.

A conclusive explanation so far has escaped scientists studying the ailment, colony collapse disorder, since it first surfaced around 2005. But beekeepers and some researchers say there is growing evidence that a powerful new class of pesticides known as neonicotinoids, incorporated into the plants themselves, could be an important factor...

“Mr. Clement,” Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said to the lawyer arguing for the Defense of Marriage Act before the Supreme Court, “if we are totally for the States’ decision that there is a marriage between two people, for the federal government then to come in to say no joint return, no marital deduction, no Social Security benefits; your spouse is very sick but you can’t get leave; people—if that set of attributes, one might well ask, What kind of marriage is this?”

Female veterans who suffered a sexual assault in the military are nine times more likely to develop post-traumatic stress disorder compared to other female veterans, and military officials must do more to prevent these assaults—these are the conclusions of a gripping new government report on the hardships faced by troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.

Mandated by the 2008 National Defense Authorization Act, the 794-page study from the Institute of Medicine is a product of over four years of intense research into what troops face as they return from Iraq and Afghanistan. It’s a gripping portrait of post-traumatic stress disorders among some troops, along with traumatic brain injuries, barriers to healthcare, and problems re-adjusting to family and society...

The summers I spent at my grandmother’s house were defined by reading—particularly reading, with extreme interest and feeling, the oddest and most unsuitable things I could find lying around: an ancient issue of Good Housekeeping or a collection of Dave Barry columns or the “Catechism of the Catholic Church.” It’s not like I had nothing to choose from. The house contained hundreds of books. I could have easily selected from my grandmother’s cache of Agatha Christie and Bess Streeter Aldrich, or from any of the books left by my grandfather, who, when he was alive, was known for reading a book a day. It’s baffling now to think of the things I chose to read, and it was baffling to my family at the time.

But these choices were evidence of an important beginning. Growing up can mean growing into a sense that what one reads has a larger personal and cultural significance, starting to read into things. For so many adolescent readers, this process of forming deeper connections and insights is about random discovery, following boredom, never analyzing or judging—which is how the summer I turned thirteen came to center on Rudolf Flesch’s “The Book of Unusual Quotations.”...

In the decade that Michael Piazza has been a landlord in this small Hudson Valley city, he has dealt with only a handful of nonpaying tenants.

On a recent afternoon at the storage warehouse he owns, Mr. Piazza was rummaging through a brightly lighted space that contained the eclectic belongings of one such tenant. There were heaps of cardboard boxes and old catalogs strewn across the floor. There were empty musical instrument cases and handwritten letters. There was even an unopened bar of soap.

But while Mr. Piazza has dealt before with a small number of people who have fallen behind in their rent, the owner of this particular trove is certainly unexpected. He is a member of a group enshrined in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

"I've had other deadbeats," Mr. Piazza, 66, said. "But nothing like Garth."...

A standoff over financial terms has prompted the bookstore chain Barnes & Noble to cut back substantially on the number of titles it orders from the publishing house Simon & Schuster, raising fears among other publishers, agents and authors that the conflict may harm the publishing industry as a whole.

Industry executives, as well as authors of recently published Simon & Schuster books and their agents, say that Barnes & Noble has reduced book orders greatly, to almost nothing in the case of some lesser-known writers. They contend that the move is damaging their sales. Authors say the retail chain has taken other steps, like not giving them display space or allowing book tour appearances in its stores.

Simon Lipskar, the president of Writers House, a literary agency in New York, said, “Without pointing fingers, authors are being hurt by this, and I think it is despicable.”

The conflict, which is being closely watched by other publishers, underscores the pressure on the publishing industry and Barnes & Noble as they try to compete with online retailers like Amazon...

To hear Jackie Dean tell it, it all started more than 18 years ago with her cousin Peaches’s beat-up Lincoln, a tip from her friend Gayle and possible betrayal by her own mother. But, really, it may have actually started back in the second grade, in Mr. John’s class, when Jackie and her classmates read the most books in their school in Oakland and won a choice of a field trip.

“We had Great America, Marine World, Frontier Village — we had all kinds of places we could’ve gone to,” Ms. Dean said. “Why we chose the Golden Gate Bridge, I couldn’t tell you.”

So maybe the Golden Gate chose her, the way she sees it. Ms. Dean began working as a toll collector on the bridge 18 years ago. “It was an 18-year adventure,” she said. “I met people from all over the world. I kissed babies from different countries. I’ve taken pictures for people from all over the world. I’ve seen cars that aren’t even out, the prototypes.”

On Wednesday, Ms. Dean, 43, and the other 27 full-time toll collectors on the Golden Gate Bridge are scheduled to be replaced by a fully automated system...

Groucho Marx began hosting the TV game show “You Bet Your Life” in 1947. This was after his classic films with Chico, Harpo and Zeppo, and unlike those movies, Groucho didn’t dance around in a painted-on mustache. He sat in a chair with his cigar, wisecracking with the contestants for a long time, and the results were the stuff of classic TV.

You can watch the show on Netflix now, or YouTube – which might not have been possible if it weren’t for the efforts of Andy Marx, the grandson of Groucho Marx. Andy’s a writer and photographer now. But in 1973 he was instrumental in saving this vital piece of Marxianna and Hollywood history from the garbage dump...