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Dr. Brewster Higley never knew the poem he wrote while sitting near a creek would become one of America's best-loved songs. On Morning Edition, NPR's Steve Lickteig reports on "Home on the Range" and how it changed its tune over time. The story is part of the Present at the Creation series.

Journalist Jon Cohen writes for Science Magazine. He just got back from the 14th International AIDS conference where he reported on the AIDS vaccine and anti-HIV drug therapies. His article "Designer Bugs" in the July/August edition of The Atlantic Monthly is about how scientists have the ability to create synthetic viruses in the lab, like mousepox and polio, and the controversies and dangers this presents.

India has lost one of its most important birds, and no one knows why. Since the early 1990s, hundreds of thousands of healthy-looking vultures have literally dropped dead there. Scientists say they've never seen anything like it. NPR's John Nielsen reports for All Things Considered.

Istalif, an hour's drive north of Kabul, sits in the heart of Shomali Plain, once the breadbasket of Afghanistan. The Taliban forced hundreds of thousands of people from the region and destroyed their farms, shops and homes. Now the villagers are starting to return. On Morning Edition, Renee Montagne reports on their efforts in the debut of a series on rebuilding Afghanistan.

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.