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NPR's Joanne Silberner reports on a two-day meeting convened by the National Cancer Institute to talk about early events in pregnancy and the risk of breast cancer. Much of the meeting is closed to the public, and there's considerable discussion about abortion and the risk of breast cancer. The N.C.I. altered its scientific summary of the risks, changing its position that the risk is all-but-non-existent to a stance that science supports a risk. Critics charge that politics are influencing science on this topic, but opponents of abortion say the institute is finally interpreting the science correctly.

How do tiny creatures weighing about as much as two pennies survive the brutal winters of northern climes? It's a question that fascinates biology professor Bernd Heinrich. His recent book, Winter World: The Ingenuity of Animal Survival., tackles that and many other mysteries of the natural world in winter. NPR's Andrea de Leon caught up with the author in the snowy woods of western Maine.

Melissa Block talks to Rob Cockerham, who finds creative ways to quantify the contents of everyday containers. These include containers for toothpaste, Magic Shell, and shaving cream. He takes photos of his projects and posts them online.

With his writing partner, Fred Ebb, Kander wrote the music for the original Broadway musical Chicago. The movie version of Chicago is nominated for 13 Academy Awards this year. Kander and Ebb are nominated for their song "I Move On." Kander and Ebb also wrote the music for the shows Cabaret, The Act, Woman of the Year, and Flora the Red Meance, and the Martin Scorsese movie musical New York, New York. Both Chicago and Cabaret have recently been revived on Broadway.

NASA releases e-mails demonstrating that a day before space shuttle Columbia's demise, engineers privately worried about the impact of tile damage sustained at launch. The e-mails explored prophetic "what-if" scenarios that concluded the orbiter could lose its left wing and break up high in the atmosphere. Hear NPR's Richard Harris.

NPR's Sylvia Poggioli talks about her upcoming series on Muslims in Europe with host Liane Hansen. Poggioli's stories will air this week on All Things Considered.

His new book is What Liberal Media? The Truth about Bias and the News. While most critics of the media say reporters are too liberal, Alterman contends the opposite is true, and that the bulk of reporting is quite conservative. Alterman currently writes for The Nation and the Altercation weblog. He's been a contributing editor or writer for Worth, Rolling Stone, Elle, Mother Jones, World Policy Journal and The Sunday Express (London).

Melanie Peeples reports from Birmingham, Al., that an Internet site has become a way for so-called "military brats" to reconnect to childhood friends and sweethearts. The children of those serving in the military often spend their childhood moving from one base to another. Staying in touch through these countless relocations can be difficult. So far, about 60,000 of the millions of military brats have registered on the site searching for former friends and acquaintances.

The United Nations continues to debate war with Iraq over its weapons of mass destruction. These weapons seem all the more frightening because of worries they could fall into the hands of terrorists. For National Geographic's Radio Expeditions, NPR's Alex Chadwick visited Trinity, the remote New Mexico test site where the most terrifying weapon ever -- the atomic bomb -- was born.

Film critic David Edelstein comments on the DVD release of Donnie Darko, starring Jake Gyllenhaal.