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In August 1941, LIFE magazine ran a photo of up-and-coming movie actress Rita Hayworth. The striking redhead in a silky nightgown became one of the most famous pin-ups of World War II. Monday on Morning Edition's Present at the Creation series, NPR's Susan Stamberg reports on the snapshot's appeal and on Rita Hayworth's life.

Pedro Rivera is a one-time undocumented immigrant who now owns his own record label in Los Angeles. As NPR's Mandalit del Barco reports for All Things Considered, his story exemplifies the new California -- where the diversity of the population is often a reason for entrepreneurial success, not a barrier to it.

It usually takes a strong back to work for a moving company. "Estate movers" need strong stomachs as well. As part of Morning Edition's "Dirty Work" series, NPR's Scott Horsley reports on the workers who empty houses that sometimes haven't been cleaned in decades.

Refugees are returning to Afghanistan in record numbers and many of them hope to start businesses. On Morning Edition, guest host Renee Montagne reports on one factory owner who hopes to help rebuild his homeland -- and on the many obstacles he must overcome before his dream is realized. It's the latest part of NPR's series "Re-Creating Afghanistan."

Some 30 years ago, a public health investigator overheard a story about a doctor being reprimanded for treating an elderly black man with syphilis. The investigator had stumbled upon one of the most notorious medical experiments in U.S. history: 399 black men with syphilis went untreated so scientists could study how the disease ravages the body. NPR's Alex Chadwick reports for Morning Edition.

In 1991, a group of scientists entered Biosphere 2 for a two-year experiment that would test whether humans could survive in a closed environment. The experiment wasn't exactly a success. As NPR's Joe Palca reports, researchers are now trying to show that Biosphere 2 can serve another purpose -- as a laboratory to study Earth systems.

Brooklyn artist Nina Katchadourian has a novel solution to noise pollution caused by the tones of common car alarms. She's created a new kind of alarm that blares bird songs that more or less follow the same familiar sonic pattern of most alarms, but with a "natural" twist. NPR's Rick Karr reports.

The Bush administration is expected to announce a plan for vaccinating certain Americans against smallpox. An advisory panel has recommended that at most, 500,000 health-care workers should be immunized. But many state and local public health officials don't think that's nearly enough to cope with a smallpox bioterrorism attack. NPR's Richard Knox reports for All Things Considered.

For centuries, sugar has been the foundation of the Cuban economy, and a key part of the country's identity. NPR's Tom Gjelten reports that Fidel Castro's government is drastically downsizing the sugar industry because of economic pressures, and transforming some of the old sugar mills into attractions for a more profitable industry: tourism.

After afflicting more than 8,400 people and killing nearly 800 worldwide, the daily count of SARS deaths and cases is showing a decline. But another respiratory disease, tuberculosis, rages on. Tens of millions of people have TB and millions more are at risk. NPR's Richard Harris reports.