Scientists say they have figured out how a very clever virus outwits a very hungry caterpillar.

The caterpillar is the gypsy moth in its larval stage, and the invasive species damages roughly a million acres of forest in the U.S. each year by devouring tree leaves.

But the damage would be greater if it weren't for something called a baculovirus that can infect these caterpillars and cause them to engage in reckless, even suicidal behavior, scientists say. The virus is so effective that the government actually sprays it on trees to help control gypsy moth outbreaks.

It's been six years since Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, and the rebuilding continues. In Mississippi, the largest project under construction is the Port of Gulfport. Some $500 million in statewide recovery funds are being used to rebuild the port. The state calls it a critical resource, but some residents hit hard by Katrina fear they won't see the benefits.

The Port of Gulfport sits just off Highway 90, a main road that runs all along the coast. Katrina's 30-foot storm surge nearly destroyed this facility which is the size of about 50 city blocks.

In Libya, there's growing concern over the vast arsenals of weapons that have flooded on to the streets since Moammar Gadhafi's ouster. Warehouses of surface-to-air missiles, mortars and anti-tank mines have been looted.

Soon after the rebels overran the headquarters of Gadhafi's much feared Khamis Brigade on the south side of Tripoli, rebels and ordinary citizens scavenged through a bombed-out warehouse on the base.

When Leon Panetta was CIA director, he helped lead the effort to find and kill Osama bin Laden.

Now, Panetta may have an even harder job.

He's two months into his tenure as secretary of defense and here's what Panetta has to do: Run two ground wars, keep up the fight against al-Qaida and at the same time figure out how to cut what could end up being a trillion dollars from a Pentagon's budget.

The Laugh

For several decades, psychiatrists who work with the dying have been trying to come up with new psychotherapies that can help people cope with the reality of their death. One of these therapies asks the dying to tell the story of their life.

This end of life treatment, called dignity therapy, was created by a man named Harvey Chochenoff. When Chochenoff was a young psychiatrist working with the dying, he had a really powerful experience with one of the patients he was trying to counsel, a man with an inoperable brain tumor.

This episode — the Season 6 premiere — aired on Sunday September 11, the 10 year anniversary of the 9/11/01 terrorist attacks on the United States. This special episode examined the medical response at Ground Zero, the site of New York City’s World Trade Center. 

Featured Guests: Dr. Steven Sampson, who was on his ER medical school rotation in Manhattan on 9/11, and Dr. Jacqueline Moline, who is a leading expert on the physical and mental health of the World Trade Center responders in the decade since September 11, 2001.

It's been said many times, today: that one of Sept. 11's most significant legacy are the two wars still being fought the by the United States. Perhaps, that's why this set of pictures feels so important. It shows American service members commemorating the 10th anniversary of Sept. 11 in simple terms: raising an American flag or bowing in prayer:

It seems there are two types of stories about how children who experienced Sept. 11: First, of course, there are the stories about the children who lost parents on that day, and then there are those who are too young to remember what life was like before the attacks.

NPR's Zoe Chace talked to some of those kids in New York. She filed this report:

Kate Bralauer is 11. She's from Manhattan, she's never seen the skyline with the towers in it. But 9/11 matters to her.

NORAD scrambled two F-16 fighter jets to escort an American Airlines flight traveling from Los Angeles to New York, today, after three passengers locked themselves in a bathroom and refused to come out.

The AP reports:

Flight 34 landed safely after 4 p.m. Sunday. The nature of the incident was unclear but a law enforcement official says it isn't thought to be terrorism.

On the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, Aaron Brown came into work at CNN still preparing for his new role as the anchor of the network's flagship evening broadcast. He wasn't supposed to go on air for several more weeks, but on that morning and in the days that followed, Brown became the guide for millions of viewers glued to their television sets.

As he scurried to the roof of CNN's headquarters in New York shortly after the towers were hit, Brown remembers stopping in the middle of 8th Avenue and telling himself to stay calm.