Talk of the Nation on WFAE

How a cucumber creates its curling tendril has stumped scientists for centuries, including Charles Darwin and Asa Gray. With the help of time-lapse photography and prosthetic tendril fabricated in the lab, physicist Sharon Gerbode, biologist Joshua Puzey and colleagues figured out why tendrils twist, according to a new study in Science.

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NEAL CONAN, HOST:

This is TALK OF THE NATION. I'm Neal Conan in Washington. Like John Kennedy before him, Mitt Romney faces questions about his faith, as well as politics. And like Roman Catholics in 1960 and African-Americans in 2008, Mormons find themselves in an unaccustomed spotlight.

Matt Bissonnette wrote No Easy Day under the pseudonym Mark Owen. He has drawn criticism for publishing details of the Osama bin Laden mission without Pentagon approval. Peter Bergen, author of Manhunt, says this account of the raid fits almost exactly with his understanding of the operation.

The Syrian crisis continues to deepen as the conflict rages on. And pressure grows on the international community as refugees stream out. NPR foreign correspondent Kelly McEvers, former ambassador to Syria Edward Djerejian and Washington Post columnist David Ignatius discuss diplomatic options.

Hollywood tells many tales of the news business: the doe-eyed music reporter trying to get the big story in Almost Famous, the eager television reporter who has a lot to learn in Up Close and Personal, and the disgruntled news anchor who's fired from his job in Network.

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NEAL CONAN, HOST:

This is TALK OF THE NATION. I'm Neal Conan in Washington. Hard rain from Isaac, hard truths from Chris Christie and hard knocks from Reince Priebus. It's Wednesday and time for a...

(SOUNDBITE OF KNOCKING)

CONAN: Edition of the political junkie.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDINGS)

PRESIDENT RONALD REAGAN: There you go again.

VICE PRESIDENT WALTER MONDALE: When I hear your new ideas, I'm reminded of that ad: Where's the beef?

SENATOR BARRY GOLDWATER: Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice.

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NEAL CONAN, HOST:

Now that Mitt Romney's officially wrapped up the Republican Party's nomination for president, he faces a political sprint to November. Former Mississippi governor and past party chair Haley Barbour talks about Romney, the Republican Party, and what lies ahead in the battle for the presidency.

In 1999, Debra Gwartney's 14-year-old daughter saw a man taking photos outside her window. Police found evidence that someone had climbed on a bucket to peer into that window numerous times. This was just the beginning of a long series of disturbing details that Gwartney and her daughters would learn about the Peeping Tom in their neighborhood.

While the act is reviled, some dismiss it as a relatively harmless, victimless crime. But there are victims, and the experience can have a lasting impact on them, haunting them long after the violation is over.

NPR's Neal Conan reads listener comments about African-American men, stigma and mental illness, the pressures students feel to succeed in college, and what hospitals are doing to help transplant patients navigate the bureaucracy and fears they often face.