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In 1994, three teens were convicted of the murder of three boys in West Memphis, Ark. The trial drew national attention, due in part to the documentary series Paradise Lost. The "West Memphis Three" appealed their convictions and were released from prison in August 2011.

Emotions can be hard to gauge in the beginning of any romantic relationship. But for people with autism, who often struggle to interpret social cues, romance can be particularly challenging to navigate. And for some, the prospect of loving and being loved seems out of reach.

The captain of the Italian cruise ship Costa Concordia has been pilloried by many for what they say was cowardice in the wake of the accident off the coast of Tuscany Friday.

The dramatic recordings of the exchange between Coast Guard Capt. Gregorio De Falco's and Capt. Francesco Schettino, reveal a captain unwilling to return to the listing ship, even as De Falco mocks him.

But under maritime law, what was Schettino supposed to do?

U.S. plans for sanctions on Iran are escalating what some analysts call a covert war between the two countries. Patrick Clawson, director of the Washington Institute's Iran Security Initiative, and Columbia University's Gary Sick discuss how the Obama administration should deal with Iran.

New Year's resolutions have notoriously short lifetimes, but for a blogger in Pittsburgh named Laurie Woodward, a promise to herself became an Internet sensation.

Woodward was inspired to bake one recipe each week from Dorie Greenspan's popular cookbook Baking From My Home To Yours. And she found plenty of company — more than 100 bakers decided to take up the challenge with her. Every week, they made a recipe and posted their cooking stories to the online community Tuesdays with Dorie.

NPR's Neal Conan reads from listener comments on previous show segments, including responses to a conversation about independent voters, and a video depicting U.S. Marines desecrating the bodies of Taliban fighters.

We've all witnessed bad manners: The rider who showers the bus with his uncovered sneeze; the woman who cuts into the movie line; the person texting mid-film at the movie theater.

But while we know bad manners when we see them, good manners can be harder to define. What's the problem with saying "No problem" as a substitute for "You're welcome"? Is it acceptable to answer a phone call with an email? Is it offensive to ask a taxi driver where he's from?

Five more bodies were recovered Tuesday from the Italian cruise ship that ran aground off the shore of Tuscany. Prosecutors have accused Capt. Francesco Schettino of manslaughter for abandoning the ship before evacuation was complete. Maritime law professor Bob Jarvis offers insight into the responsibilities of ship captains.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has found that binge drinking, usually associated with young people, seems to be an issue among adults as well. And the University of Connecticut recently found Dr. Dipak Das, who studied on an ingredient in red wine, had falsified data on its benefits.

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NEAL CONAN, HOST:

The Supreme Court's 2010 Citizen's United ruling loosened campaign finance restrictions, enabling corporations to spend unlimited amounts of money on elections. As a result, super PACs — political action committees — can solicit large corporate contributions and produce a plethora of attack ad campaigns.

As nations tighten economic sanctions and Iran threatens to close the Strait of Hormuz, tensions between U.S. and Iran are mounting. Former Ambassador and trustee of the National Committee on American Foreign Policy Thomas Pickering argues that military action isn't the solution in Iran.

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IRA FLATOW, HOST:

Welcome to SCIENCE FRIDAY. I am Ira Flatow. A few weeks ago, we talked about the discovery of new exoplanets, those planets outside of our solar system. There were the first Earth-sized exoplanets, and we had another exoplanet smack dab in the middle of the Goldilocks Zone, you know, where liquid water could exist. That was another first.

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IRA FLATOW, HOST:

Speaking of dark matter and space-time, one of the major questions about our universe is how did it all come into being, and my next guest tackles that question in his new book, "A Universe from Nothing: Why There is Something Rather than Nothing." Lawrence Krauss is also a foundation professor and director of the Origins Project at Arizona State University in Tempe. He's also in our NPR Washington studios. Welcome back, Lawrence.

LAWRENCE KRAUSS: It's always good to be back, Ira.

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IRA FLATOW, HOST:

This is SCIENCE FRIDAY. I'm Ira Flatow. We talk many times about the rise of drug-resistant bacteria, germs that resist most antibiotics, except for a precious few. A case in point is tuberculosis. But now comes word of a strain of TB that is totally drug-resistant, TDR TB as doctors are calling it. There are no second-choice antibiotics here. We simply have no drugs to fight this superbug. There are no weapons left. And it has now infected a dozen patients in India.

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IRA FLATOW, HOST:

Flora Lichtman is here with a Video Pick of the Week. And it's something about an everyday object?

FLORA LICHTMAN, BYLINE: An everyday item. The Video Pick of the Week this week is about - oh, that was really bad.

(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)

LICHTMAN: I tried to do a sound effect. Oh, live radio. Sorry. That was a very weak...

(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)

FLATOW: You need a fresh bottle.

LICHTMAN: I did shake it up before I came in. All right, anyway. Sorry. Forget it. Let's reverse.

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IRA FLATOW, HOST:

Next up: A bit of good news for those of you lamenting the loss of your newspaper science section. The Huffington Post has a new section dedicated to science, also find a lot of technology there. Editors of the news site describe it as one-stop shopping for the latest in scientific news and opinion, with an aim to entertain as well as inform.

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IRA FLATOW, HOST:

Welcome to SCIENCE FRIDAY. I'm Ira Flatow. Thinking about a tattoo? Well, forget butterflies, unicorns or mom. Tattoos have gone geek. No more of those blurry anchors and pinup girls. We've got molecules, double-helix strands, mathematical equations all showing up on biceps and other places.

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IRA FLATOW, HOST:

This is SCIENCE FRIDAY. I'm Ira Flatow. Up next, "Confessions of a Surgeon." Have you ever sat in your doctor's office, you know, doctor's going down that long list of aches and pains, and have you ever thought to yourself: I wonder if he's really listening to me. Well, at least one doctor has confessed to not always paying attention to what his patients say.

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NEAL CONAN, HOST:

This is TALK OF THE NATION. I'm Neal Conan, in Washington. A police officer draws a weapon and fires. We see that on TV dramas every night. But what actually happens afterwards? Do investigators check the flight of every bullet? What kind of questions do officers face, and what kind of sanctions if they messed up?

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NEAL CONAN, HOST:

The Marine Corps has identified at least two of the four Marines in a video that surfaced last night as Marines based at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina. The video shows four U.S. Marines in Afghanistan in full combat gear, standing over the corpses of three men, laughing and urinating on the bodies. The audio is difficult to understand.

(SOUNDBITE OF YOUTUBE VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MAN #1: Here's the tough guy (unintelligible).

UNIDENTIFIED MAN #2: I think so (unintelligible).

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NEAL CONAN, HOST:

This is TALK OF THE NATION. I'm Neal Conan, in Washington. It's now almost four decades since the Supreme Court's famous and controversial ruling that legalized abortion. In recent years, opponents have stepped up efforts to challenge Roe v. Wade in Congress and state legislatures, in court and at the ballot box, last year in particular.

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NEAL CONAN, HOST:

Since the 2008 presidential campaign, many Washington watchers have advocated for an Obama-Hillary Clinton ticket. New York Times columnist Bill Keller says swapping Biden for the popular Secretary of State is the best way for President Obama to ensure re-election.

Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich and Rick Perry all hope to derail Mitt Romney's front-runner status in the South Carolina primary. Former South Carolina Rep. Bob Inglis joins NPR's Ken Rudin for a preview of the Palmetto State primary.

In his book, Justice and the Enemy, British journalist William Shawcross says the Nuremberg trials of Nazi leaders after World War II created a template for the trial of future war crimes. He considers the case of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, who's being held in Guantanamo prison and will be tried in a military commission.

In December, Ethiopian troops seized the city of Beledweyne, in Western Somalia, from al-Qaida-linked terrorist group al-Shabab, in an attempt to weaken their influence in the country. The decision to increase international presence in Somalia has raised serious questions among analysts about the effect armed intervention will have on the region.

Sites like PolitiFact and Factcheck.org are designed to verify political claims and hold politicians accountable. But critics say fact-checking entities are themselves biased. The Weekly Standard's Mark Hemingway and Glenn Kessler of the Washington Post discuss fact-checking in American politics.

Every year, film fans and studio executives travel to Park City, Utah, for the Sundance Film Festival, a showcase for independent films from around the world.

While feature films are always a draw at the festival, documentary fans closely follow the nonfiction films that premiere at Sundance each year.

The demonstrations that spread across the Middle East in 2011 unseated leaders in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya. Yemen's president has agreed to step down and violence continues in Syria. NPR foreign correspondents discuss developments since the Arab Spring and what they mean for the region and the U.S.