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Ben Mattlin was born with a condition called spinal muscular atrophy. Many infants with the disease don't live past age 2, but Mattlin went on to attend Harvard, get married and have kids. "I had this dumb idea from childhood that I could do anything anybody else could do," he says.

Moths and butterflies radically change shape as they grow, from little wormy caterpillar critters to airborne beauties. Why are they born this way? Could they actually be separate organisms?

Just how do trees die? It seems like a simple question, but the answer still eludes scientists. And understanding forest ecology is increasingly important as the effects of climate change begin to take root.

As a kid, author Victor LaValle loved horror stories. But it wasn't until he read Books of Blood by Clive Barker that he found one set in his own hometown. Have you ever read a book that took place where you live? Tell us in the comments.

Climate change is exaggerating the normal swings in weather. For the American Southwest, that means more intense waves of heat, drought and fire that could wipe out trees that have stood for centuries. It's already revamping the ecology of the landscape.

Huge wildfires are burning in the West — setting new records for damage this summer. These megafires are burning bigger and hotter than ever before. Scientists say climate change and a century-long policy of fire prevention — which inadvertently turned forests into giant tinderboxes — are to blame.

The government says that the poverty rate for 2011 was 15 percent, essentially unchanged from the year before. That still means that more than 46 million people lived below the poverty line last year. According to one economist, "the bad news isn't as bad as it has been."

The West Los Angeles VA Medical Center is a nearly 400-acre campus whose onetime sole purpose was to house veterans, but some say it has lost sight of that mission. The Department of Veterans Affairs has been renting chunks of the land, mostly to enterprises that have nothing to do with helping veterans.

Last week's testimony before Gambia's Truth Commission riveted the country and described a culture of systematic sexual abuse in the presidential palace.

Thawing permafrost in Alaska's Arctic is making it harder for oil companies to operate there. But a cottage industry has cropped up with new gadgets to help.