NPR Topics: Story of the Day Podcast

Before the smartphone, the laptop and the pocket calculator, there was a powerful mechanical computer. Our new series, Tools of the Trade, begins with a look at the slide rule.

About 75,000 patients a year die from infections they caught in the hospital. A Kaiser Health News analysis finds that nearly 700 hospitals across the nation have higher than expected infection rates.

As of 2012, rentals made up 35 percent of American households. Their numbers are growing, but the demand isn't easing rental rates. Many renters now pay more than 50 percent of their income on rent.

Thousands of civil rights activists descended upon Mississippi in 1964 to help register African-American voters. For many, the first stop was intensive training — including how to take a beating.

Evidence from bone growth now suggests that T. rex and its kin had the best of both worlds. Their muscles and nerves fired fast like ours, but they burned energy slowly, more like lizards do.

Rashema Melson is the valedictorian of Anacostia High School in Washington, D.C. She's always excelled at her homework — but for the past six years, she hasn't had a home to do that work in.

The U.S. military is closing a facility scientists have used to study the edge of Earth's atmosphere. Conspiracy theorists suspect it's also been used for nefarious activity — like mind control.

Water is scarce in California, and prices are all over the map. Some farmers are paying almost 100 times more than others. Should water flow to the highest bidder?

More people are going to prison, and more children are impacted as a result. What effect does that have on kids? The question is rarely researched, but Ifetayo Harvey knows the answer firsthand.

The Missionary Training Center, which prepares young adults to spread the Gospel around the world, is recognized as a model for language instruction. And the program only takes a few weeks.

A law to educate inmates about their rights and how to report sexual violence crimes went into effect in 2003. But most states are still not in full compliance. Others are protesting the rules.

It's not every day that an industry in hypergrowth loses trust with its customers in a big way. That's what has happened with American companies in cloud computing such as Cisco.

Aquaculture in the U.S. has lagged because of opposition from environmentalists and people living on the coast. But entrepreneurs say they've found a way to produce fish on land with little pollution.

With new measles outbreaks in Southern California, New York and British Columbia, vaccinating — and not vaccinating — is still an area of great concern.

The Affordable Care Act's poll numbers may rise now that seven million more Americans have a stake in its survival. Yet even a small number of people can still make trouble for the law.