As Florida wrestles with an invasion of Burmese pythons, hunts have been organized to try to snare the giant, invasive snakes. Snake handler Jeff Fobb of the Miami-Dade Fire Rescue takes NPR on an expedition into the pythons’ breeding ground in the Everglades.

Nell Greenfieldboyce describes her travels to Greenland to report on narwhals — whales with a long, spiral unicorn horn. In the tiny town on a remote fjord, during the 24-hours of sunlight season, she writes: “Life seemed to slow down. I did not want to leave.”

America’s electric grid is vulnerable to attack from electromagnetic weaponry, and building a smart grid might make it worse, says Rep. Roscoe Bartlett (R-MD). Bartlett, a former research scientist and engineer, offers his solution for securing U.S. electronics from attack.

Computer scientist Hovav Shacham has figured out a way to hack into older, seemingly more secure voting machines. Shacham talks about the “hack-ability” of electronic voting systems, election security and the best way to run an election with the current machines.

John Dabiri, bioengineer at Caltech, has developed new techniques for studying the motion of aquatic animals. In a recent study in the journal Nature, Dabiri and colleagues explain how swimming animals contribute to ocean mixing — the process that distributes heat, nutrients and gasses throughout the sea.

Can chemistry explain what makes Stilton stinky and goat cheese gooey? Liz Thorpe, vice president of Murray’s Cheese in New York and author of the new book The Cheese Chronicles, talks about the science and business of making cheese in America.

The president headed to Montana and Colorado for town hall-style meetings this weekend to counter what the White House says are misconceptions about his health care initiatives.

Mastering fire doesn’t just give you tastier meat. Some 70,000 years ago, a modern human likely discovered that if you make a spear point out of heated rock you get a sharper, more symmetrical tool.

How much sleep you need might just be written in your genes, according to a new a study. Researchers have discovered a genetic mutation that appears to allow some people to get by on less sleep than others.

National Hurricane Center director Bill Read explains why there have been fewer hurricanes this season. He also gives advice on how to stay prepared for storms, even when there seems to be no immediate threat of danger.