Born before 1984? He may have saved your life.

At a tense moment in the Cold War, a lieutenant colonel in the Soviet Union Air Defense Forces got a chilling alert early one morning. "The siren howled, but I just sat there for a few seconds, staring at the big, back-lit, red screen with the word 'launch' on it," Stanislav Petrov told the BBC. U.S. missiles could reach the Soviet Union in 20 minutes.

John Burnett/NPR They just wanted their infant son to get necessary surgery. ICE shadowed them like ‘dangers to the community,’ an advocate says. The experience of the Sanchezes, who were made to submit to arrest and deportation proceedings to get their 2-month-old the care he needed, renewed scrutiny on immigration agents detaining people in places that used to be “safe zones” — churches, hospitals, schools, courthouses and more. The Border Patrol did escort them through a checkpoint to a children’s hospital, but once there put the Sanchezes under intense monitoring. That included following the father to the bathroom and ordering the mother to breastfeed with the door open. Courtesy of Nicole Spencer ‘It made me feel like I could do it too’: Insect scientists leap to defense of girl teased for loving bugs The mother of 8-year-old Sophia Spencer just wanted her daughter to feel a little support for her hobby and get a feel for how it could become a career. But after her request for a chat with a scientist went viral, entomologists came crawling out of the woodwork. "Kids now, after I told them the whole story, they're like, 'Oh, well — could you teach me more about bugs?' " Sophia says. "And I'm like, 'Sure.' " Pavel Golovkin/AP Soviet officer Stanislav Petrov was monitoring satellites when they warned of a U.S. nuclear attack. He had minutes to act. "All I had to do was to reach for the phone; to raise the direct line to our top commanders — but I couldn't move. I felt like I was sitting on a hot frying pan," said Petrov, who died earlier this year. He saw only five missiles were en route and, having been trained to expect an overwhelming attack, decided there'd been a malfunction. Outside the Cuban Missile Crisis, it's the closest the world came to nuclear war. Rogelio V. Solis/AP President Trump's fans were thrilled when he got rid of DACA — but many also would be happy to see DREAMers stay Multiple polls have shown high approval among Trump supporters for ending the Obama-era program for immigrants brought to the country illegally as children. But the same polls also show much less solidarity about what should happen to those immigrants instead. Many Republicans view DACA recipients as fundamentally different from other undocumented immigrants. One poll even showed 46 percent of Republicans want citizenship for DREAMers. Ken Christensen/KCTS Television Runoff from your washing machine is leaving plastic bits in mussels, clams and oysters Canadian officials wanted to see if plastic netting, buoys and ropes were contaminating their valuable shellfish industry. But when researchers used advanced forensic scanners, they found another source: our slowly degrading, synthetic fiber clothes. It’s not known what happens when those bits get into our bodies, but the study’s author says there’s no point in avoiding the raw bar. "Microplastics are everywhere." You received this message because you're subscribed to our Best of NPR emails. |  Unsubscribe  |  Privacy Policy | NPR 1111 N. CAPITOL ST. NE WASHINGTON DC 20002