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Tuesday

California Gov. Jerry Brown has signed the nation's first statewide ban on single-use plastic bags. Here, mixed plastic items are seen at a recycling plant in Vernon, Calif., earlier this year. Reed Saxon/AP hide caption

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Reed Saxon/AP

Instead Of Staring At Screens, These Kids Stared At Faces

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A poultry processing plant in France. Europe banned treating chicken carcasses with chlorine in the 1990s out of fear that it could cause cancer. Christophe Di Pascale/Corbis hide caption

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Christophe Di Pascale/Corbis

European Activists Say They Don't Want Any U.S. 'Chlorine Chicken'

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Monday

The rendering industry likes to call itself the world's oldest recycling system. Nearly 100 percent of processed pigs will eventually get used — as meat and in uses as varied as medicine and pet food. iStockphoto hide caption

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iStockphoto

Dr. Allan Ropper speaks with residents and fellows as they do rounds at the neuroscience intensive care unit at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. M. Scott Brauer for NPR hide caption

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M. Scott Brauer for NPR

A Doctor Unlocks Mysteries Of The Brain By Talking And Watching

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Sunday

Abortions are legal in India. But many are performed by traditional midwives, called dais. Sometimes a dai rubs herbs on a woman's stomach or gives her plants to eat. Poulomi Basu for NPR hide caption

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Poulomi Basu for NPR

Emily Whittington, a radiation therapist at Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center, pulls down a mask intended to guide radiation beams into patients with head and neck cancer. Emily Siner/NPR hide caption

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Emily Siner/NPR

Unmasked, Cancer Survivors Face The Symbol Of Their Torture

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Five industrial wind turbines form part of the Gorona del Viento power plant on the island of El Hierro. By the end of this year, the power plant is set to generate 100 percent of the energy El Hierro needs, making it the world's first energy-independent island powered only by renewables. Lauren Frayer for NPR hide caption

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Lauren Frayer for NPR

Tiny Spanish Island Nears Its Goal: 100 Percent Renewable Energy

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Saturday

A member of the Indian security force keeps watch over a launch vehicle carrying the Mars Orbiter probe at the Indian Space Research Organization facility, in Sriharikota, in 2013. AFP/Getty Images hide caption

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AFP/Getty Images

India Zooms To Mars Much More Cheaply, But With Trade-Offs

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Friday

Artists' renderings of New Meadowland show how the wetland would be designed for human recreational use as well as flood control. The berm shown would be a path through the park when water was low (left). When storms came in, the wetlands would flood, and the berm would protect local development. Courtesy of New Meadowlands hide caption

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Courtesy of New Meadowlands

N.J. Braces For Future Disasters By Fleeing, And Fortifying, The Coast

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A manatee swims underwater in the springs of Crystal River, Fla. — home to a group of residents who have sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, demanding that the agency consider removing the animals from the endangered species list. Amanda Cotton/iStockphoto hide caption

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Amanda Cotton/iStockphoto

Florida's Manatees: Big, Beloved And Bitterly Contested

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