Imagine you're at home. Maybe that's in Florida, Wisconsin, Rhode Island, wherever. You have cancer. You just had another round of chemo, and the phone rings. "My name is Kate. I'm a health care counselor," the gentle voice says from her cubicle in Cherry Hill, NJ. The caller could also choose to allow the counselor to talk to his doctors or family directly. It's paid for by insurers and federal privacy rules permit this for business purposes. This is no telemarketing call … it’s about the end of your life.

Marcia Schonberg writes: Multigenerational travel is the term used when two family members (one over 60 and the other under than 18) take a vacation together. Oh, and they don't live in the same household either. Discovering options both an energetic teen and a boomer-aged grandparent enjoy wasn’t as daunting as it seemed and Québec bestowed a perfect backdrop for my world traveler wanabee of a grandson, Joey. The province is European in style and as French as you can get on this continent.

In one state, a high-school dropout can land a six-figure job. In another area of the country, only college graduates can compete for that kind of salary. Nevada's median household income fell 9 percent to $51,230 between 2008 and 2013, the largest percentage decrease among states. Maryland has the top median income in the nation, at $73,022, followed by Alaska at $72,626 and New Jersey at $70,223. Since 2008, Alaska has overtaken New Jersey and Connecticut to become the state with the second highest median income, thanks to a 6 percent increase.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is proposing to oversee larger nonbank auto finance companies for the first time at the federal level. The Bureau also released a supervision report that details the auto-lending discrimination that the Bureau has uncovered at banks. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is proposing to oversee larger nonbank auto finance companies for the first time at the federal level. The Bureau also released a supervision report that details the auto-lending discrimination that the Bureau has uncovered at banks. 

"We recognize that the depiction of violence against women in and of itself is not problematic, especially if the depiction attempts to shed serious light on the problem," Amy Bonomi said. "The problem comes when the depiction reinforces the acceptance of the status quo, rather than challenging it." Amy Bonomi is chairperson and professor in Michigan State University's Department of Human Development and Family Studies

Against all advice typically doled out to recent widows such as don’t make a major move for a year following a husband’s death — I have already decided to sell our house. There are rational reasons: a three-bedroom home is too large for just me. There is no longer a dog, so the fenced-in backyard and proximity to the park, are not necessities. There is no gardener husband, so the vegetable plots that were only tended by him will lie fallow. The upkeep is more than my limited budget can handle.  

Climate change threatens nearly half the bird species in the continental United States and Canada, including the Bald Eagle and dozens of iconic birds like the Common Loon, Baltimore Oriole and Brown Pelican, according to a new study by National Audubon Society.

US Department of Health and Human Services: Roughly one in four women (24.3%) have experienced severe physical violence by an intimate partner in her lifetime. According to the CDC’s National Violent Death Reporting System, in 2003, 20 percent of homicides were directly associated with intimate partner conflict. For victims aged 40 to 44 years old, intimate partner violence was the most common form of violence resulting in death (Centers for Disease Control, 2006).

An idea that started as a long shot — using light to control the activity of the brain — has earned Karl Deisseroth the Keio prize in medicine. The technique, called optogenetics, is now widely used at Stanford and worldwide to understand the brain's wiring and to unravel behavior. Many researchers expect it will lead to medical discoveries.

It's interesting how nature has a balance in everything. Careful attention helps keep us healthy. We can appreciate the beauty of the cornflower and not necessarily ingest it. Sometimes that works for our emotional health, as well, appreciating and observing to find out what supports us; a balance of beauty and practicality is nature's way.      

Among the survey respondents, all 50 years or older, 59% of men and 56% of women reported that their partners were not fulfilling their needs. More than a quarter of the men said they are not having enough sex, and a quarter of the women reported not having the lifestyle they had hoped for. [One researcher] contended that sex is still seen as men's territory, with women serving as silent partners and that women's perspectives and opinions are largely absent when it comes to the Viagra phenomenon as well. The dearth of population-based data about representations of the sexuality of older lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender individuals is notably missing in the literature.

"Dreadnoughtus schrani was astoundingly huge. It weighed as much as a dozen African elephants or more than seven T. rex. Shockingly, skeletal evidence shows that when this 65-ton specimen died, it was not yet full grown. It is by far the best example we have of any of the most giant creatures to ever walk the planet. This is far more complete than all previously discovered giant titanosaurian dinosaurs. "Imagine a life-long obsession with eating."

Rose Madeline Mula writes: The only pictures of little Rosie that exist are the very rare formal poses taken in a photographer's studio — as a toddler, with my parents ... in my First Communion dress ... my high school graduation portrait. Unlike today's average kid, whose every move is documented and posted on Facebook daily, there are no candids of me emerging from my mother's womb (thankfully), sleeping in my crib, splashing in my bath, crawling on the living room floor, playing with my teddy bear ...  

Julia Sneden writes: We are not so much proud of our ancestors as we are just grateful to them, for being tough enough and stubborn enough to have picked up and moved when they needed or simply wanted to do so. Crossing the Atlantic (or any other ocean) in a tiny little wooden ship must have taken huge amounts of courage, and once here, huge amounts of energy and brain power to keep from starving to death.

Next time a child visits: The Sci Show, an entertaining series of quirky YouTube videos, tackles topics ranging from "How Do Polarized Sunglasses Work" to "Strong Interaction: The Four Fundamental Forces of Physics", "Today’s Mass Extinction," "World's First See-Through Animal," "The Truth About Gingers" and "The Science of Lying." Then, move onto "6 Ways Social Media Will Change in 2014", cyberbullying or "What Digitization Will Do for the Future of Museums?"

Tam Gray writes: I first became truly aware of Richard Feynman when he testified in front of the Rogers Commission as to the possible cause of the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster. I had witnessed the explosion on television while a News Desk Editor at Time magazine; no other televised incident had to that point, and now after it, affected me with that level of sadness.

Jill Norgren Reviews: Why do mystery writers create a series? Obviously, the pleasure of developing characters over time has appeal as well as the opportunity to explore varying issues within an established framework. Doting fans and good money also speak to the attractiveness of the genre. On the other side of the table sit the readers. What is the pull of a series for them, and does a series ever lose its allure?

Japan has had a nationwide alert system since 2007 that provided seconds of warning after the devastating magnitude -9 Tohoku-Oki quake in 2011. Japan has had a nationwide alert system since 2007 that provided seconds of warning after the devastating magnitude-9 Tohoku-Oki quake in 2011.

When Sandi Smith asked what she hopes to accomplish next, Earle said "I think the most important thing I can do in my lifetime with whatever time that I have is to protect the wild system — the natural systems that remain on the land and in the sea. I want to encourage an ethic in people — an attitude of respect for nature. I can only encourage them to understand that we are inextricably tied to the natural systems that support us and it's in our best interests to do everything we can to take of them. It's not us versus nature."

Set in London in 1961, "Breathless" follows the exploits of doctors, nurses, and spouses connected with a busy obstetrics ward at a National Health Service hospital. It's a time when gynecologists are all men and nurses aspire to a trip down the aisle with a good-looking doctor. Abortion is illegal, the Beatles are still nobodies, and society is on the cusp of profound change.

Hongjie Dai and colleagues have developed a cheap, emissions-free device that uses a 1.5-volt battery to split water into hydrogen and oxygen. The hydrogen gas could be used to power fuel cells in zero-emissions vehicles."Using nickel and iron, which are cheap materials, we were able to make the electrocatalysts active enough to split water at room temperature with a single 1.5-volt battery," says Dai. By Mark Shwartz Stanford…

"In late August 2001, Air Transat flight 236 departed Toronto for Lisbon, Portugal with 306 passengers and crew on board. Midway over the Atlantic Ocean, the plane suddenly ran out of fuel. Everyone on board was instructed to prepare for an ocean ditching, which included a countdown to impact, loss of on-board lighting, and cabin de-pressurization."

Joan L. Cannon writes: I’ll always be grateful that I married a man whose leaning towards the critters was as pronounced as mine. We had space in the country for the eleven cats, ten dogs, and three horses along with guinea pigs, canaries, and other livestock. Our oversized Manx cat always tried to fit into the oval opening of a new box of Kleenex. Of course, his name was Cassius (Clay), Mohammed Ali Cat.