NPR News

The human brain contains around 100,000,000,000 nerve cells and research has given us insight into how they connect to form memories and control emotion. Much less is known about how the brain responds to injury or disease.

The Mars Science Laboratory rover, named Curiosity, made a successful landing on the surface of the red planet, drawing shouts and cheers from the mission control staff at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. University of Redlands professor Tyler Nordgren explains what Curiosity may discover.

Former President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney may be skipping the Republican National Convention later this month, where Mitt Romney is set to officially become his party's 2012 presidential nominee.

But Condoleezza Rice, the former Bush secretary of state and national security adviser, and the first African-American woman to hold both roles, is scheduled to speak from the main podium, according to the Republican National Committee, which announced Monday the names of several speakers lined up for the event.

Questions remain about the motives of the shooter who led Sunday's deadly attack at a Sikh place of worship, known as a gurdwara, in Oak Creek, Wis. Authorities have identified Wade Michael Page as the shooter in the rampage that left six others dead.

This photograph brings some perspective to the amazing feat of landing a small vehicle on Mars:

The picture was taken by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter just as the spacecraft carrying Curiosity deployed its parachute. The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment at The University of Arizona, which released the image, explains:

With each season of AMC's Breaking Bad, Dean Norris' character, DEA agent Hank Schrader, has evolved from a knuckleheaded jock into a complex, sympathetic and even heroic counterpoint to the show's anti-hero, high-school chemistry teacher turned meth cook Walter White. And to further complicate matters, Schrader and White (played by Bryan Cranston) are brothers-in-law.

Olympic boxing continues to be mired in controversy at the 2012 Summer Games. Over the weekend, Belarus and Cuba filed protests about questionable decisions involving their fighters.

Two decisions Sunday angered fans and boxing commentators. Judges awarded victory to Teymur Mammadov, a heavyweight fighter from Azerbaijan, even though his opponent from Belarus, Siarhei Karneyeu, appeared to land most of the punches in a third round in which the Belarussian was repeatedly held.

"After years maintaining innocence," as Nashville Public Radio says, Gibson Guitar Corp. has agreed to pay a $300,000 penalty, donate $50,000 to a conservation fund and give up its claims to ebony and rosewood worth nearly $262,000 to avoid being criminally prosecuted for importing exotic woods.

American judo athlete Nick Delpopolo has been disqualified from the London 2012 Games after failing a drug test, according to the International Olympic Committee. The 23-year-old Delpopolo tested positive for the substance THC, found in marijuana.

Delpopolo finished seventh in the 73 kg — or 160.5 pound — judo event. After the competition, his urine sample showed the presence of THC, a prohibited substance in Olympic sport.

Transcript

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

Let's get up to date now on the man who killed six people inside a Sikh temple in Wisconsin over the weekend.

CHIEF JOHN EDWARDS: Yesterday, at 10:25 AM we received our initial call from inside the Sikh temple that there was a problem going on and that somebody was firing inside of there.