This illustration from 1846 shows a starving boy and girl raking the ground for potatoes during the Irish Potato Famine, which began in the 1840s.
Credit Marco Thines/Senckenberg Gesellschaft für Naturforschung
Plant pathologists sequenced the genome of 19th century potato specimens like this one from London's Kew Gardens herbarium, collected during the height of the Irish famine in 1847.
Credit Wikimedia Commons
The funguslike organism Phytophthora infestans causes potato leaves to decay and tubers to rot.
An international group of plant pathologists has solved a historical mystery behind Ireland's Great Famine.
Sure, scientists have known for a while that a funguslike organism called Phytophthora infestans was responsible for the potato blight that plagued Ireland starting in the 1840s. But there are many different strains of the pathogen that cause the disease, and scientists have finally discovered the one that triggered the Great Famine.
Internal Revenue Service Director of Exempt Organizations Lois Lerner as she was sworn in at a hearing held Wednesday by the House Committee On Oversight & Government Reform.
David Greene talks to Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin about the cleanup and recovery efforts in her state after Monday's tornado that devastated the Oklahoma City suburb of Moore.
In Orlando, Fla., early Wednesday "an FBI agent was involved in a deadly shooting connected to the Boston Marathon bombing case," NBC News is reporting. A man who was being questioned by the agent is dead. NPR's Dina Temple-Raston and Carrie Johnson have also confirmed the news.
Just how firm the man's alleged connection to the marathon case is, though, remains unclear.
The next mayor of Los Angeles will be City Councilman Eric Garcetti.
In a race in which the two top contenders were both Democrats, the 42-year-old Garcetti has opened a 7- to 8-percentage-point lead over City Controller Wendy Greuel as Tuesday's votes are being counted.
On 'Morning Edition': David Schaper reports from Moore, Okla.
The news Wednesday from Moore, Okla., much of which was destroyed by a massive tornado Monday, begins with word that officials doubt they will find any more survivors or bodies under the hundreds of homes, businesses and other buildings that were leveled.
Moore Fire Chief Gary Bird put it this way Tuesday: After searches of all damaged buildings, "I'm 98 percent sure we're good."
At her desk in the study of her Philadelphia townhouse in 1967, Pearl Buck looks at a bound volume of the magazine Asia from 1925 that contained her first published work.
The Boy Scouts of America votes in Texas this week on whether to change its century old membership policy. The proposal is to open up the scouts to allow gay youth to join and continue to ban on adults who are gay. About 1,400 voting members will decide.
Apple was criticized in a Senate committee hearing Tuesday for using complex accounting to minimize the corporate taxes it pays. One key piece of the company's tax strategy: It funnels lots of its profits through subsidiaries in Ireland.
Offering low corporate tax rates has been a fundamental part of Ireland's economic strategy for decades — a way to get foreign companies to set up operations in the country.
A worker chips away at Jerusalem stone, likely destined for a building facade somewhere in the world. Stone and marble is a big business in Palestinian towns near Bethlehem. Quarries are in Israeli-controlled areas, and access can be a challenge.
Credit Emily Harris/NPR
Rami El-Zogheir (right), general manager of Hebron's Golf & Horse Footwear, says he's ready to expand into other Arab markets. All he needs, he says, are assurances that the political situation will at least stay the same, if not improve.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry heads back to Israel and the West Bank on Thursday for more talks on restarting peace negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians. When he was there last month, he walked away with at least one agreement — to improve the West Bank economy. Here's how he put it as he left Israel:
