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Food labels have become battlegrounds. Government regulators, companies and food movement activists have been fighting over what belongs on the label. (GMOs? Trans fats? Claims that bran prevents heart disease?) We asked four big thinkers for their dream food label.

Day after day, workers at Michigan State University care for and feed colonies of evolving bacteria. The original microbes have produced more than 50,000 generations in the 25 years since the experiment began. Despite predictions the bacteria might someday reach a point where they would evolve no more, the results show they keep changing.

Laura Lane was heading to work when her train got stuck. Conductor Paquita Williams was soon walking through the cars, putting passengers at ease in the darkness. Laura was so impressed with how Paquita handled the two-hour ordeal, she wanted to learn more about her.

The Swedish furniture store Ikea is sending a $2.6 million aid package. China is sending aid worth $1.6 million. It first offered $100,000.

The online retailer is premiering its first original show — a comedy about four senators bunking together in D.C. NPR's Eric Deggans says the series, which stars John Goodman, isn't quite the sharp comedy you might expect from creator Garry Trudeau.

The EPA proposed a new standard on Friday for how much biofuel must be mixed into the nation's gasoline. The portion of vehicle fuel that comes from plants has increased dramatically over recent years to about 10 percent. But most of it comes from corn. Congress hoped that, by now, a billion gallons would be coming from advanced biofuels, which have much smaller greenhouse gas footprints. That hasn't happened. But the nascent cellulosic fuel industry says don't count it out. Several plants are on the verge of opening and more will be on the way.

In Philomena, the British comedian plays a journalist helping an older woman track down the son she was forced to give up for adoption. Coogan tells NPR's Robert Siegel about the project — one with a bit more weight than his usual work.

President Obama's proposal — designed to help reverse the recent cancellation of some health policies — seems to leave the decision up to insurance companies. But there are other decision-makers in the mix who are just as important: state regulators.

Each of the young women in Laura van den Berg's The Isle of Youth is searching for significance in her life, troubled by the choices she's made. Their tales make up a collection of short stories written with cool aloofness. Critic Rosecrans Baldwin says that this book won't be for everyone — but for fans of detached prose, it's spectacular.

Several states are moving or looking to move to a new primary election system that could force members of Congress to pay more attention to general election voters than to their base voters on the right or left.