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Waste Whey? Some Say No Way.

Credit GAETAN BALLY / KEYSTONE /Landov

Swiss cheese-maker Ernst Waser lets the whey drain off from the skimmed cheese curd through the cheesecloth.

By Ted Burnham

When you open a tub of yogurt, do you pour off that cloudy layer of liquid that collects on the top? If so, you're not just wasting nutritious protein and lactose – you're tossing out what some scientists see as a valuable raw material.

Strange though it might seem, researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Process Engineering in Germany announced this week that they're turning whey into plastic-like films.

2:34 pm

Fri January 13, 2012

Alsop Sprach Zarathustra: Decoding Strauss' Tone Poem

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Credit Valery Hache / AFP/Getty Images

Richard Strauss' iconic opening to Also Sprach Zarathustra evokes a sense of vastness and power, Marin Alsop says.

Credit Grant Leighton

Alsop says Strauss poses big questions in his music.

By Marin Alsop

I can't imagine a more stimulating conversation opener than "God is dead." Indeed, this quote by Friedrich Nietzsche sparked heated debate in his time, as it still does today. But how many of us know the writings of this 19th-century philosopher?

2:30 pm

Fri January 13, 2012

A GOP 'Station Of The Cross,' Bob Jones Is Not On Romney's Itinerary

Credit BRIAN SNYDER / Reuters /Landov

Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney greets supporters during a campaign stop at Cherokee Trikes and More in Greer, S.C. on Thursday.

By NPR Staff

Bob Jones University used to be a "station of the cross for aspiring presidential candidates," NPR's Ari Shapiro reports on Friday's All Things Considered. Candidates like Ronald Reagan, Bob Dole and Pat Buchanan all spoke at the school, a "bastion of the most conservative brand of evangelical Christianity," Shapiro says.

2:25 pm

Fri January 13, 2012

Red Heart The Ticker: Raising The Dead Via Folk Music

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Credit Ed Cyzewski

Tyler Gibbons and Robin MacArthur of Red Heart the Ticker.

Credit Courtesy of the artist

Margaret MacArthur cradles a young Robin.

By Angela Evancie

Family heirlooms take all shapes: a pocket watch, a painting. For Robin MacArthur and her husband Tyler Gibbons, who form the folk duo Red Heart the Ticker, the family inheritance consists of an old house and lots of songs — both gifts from MacArthur's late grandmother, Margaret.

2:14 pm

Fri January 13, 2012

Winter Songs: R.E.M.'s Dark And Brooding 'Sweetness'

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Credit Sean Gardner / Getty Images

"It's always hard to tell exactly what [R.E.M.'s] Michael Stipe is singing about," says NPR listener and novelist Thomas Mullen.

Credit Brad Dececco

Thomas Mullen's latest novel is The Revisionists.

By editor

Originally published on Tue February 14, 2012 1:23 pm

Listen

All this winter, All Things Considered has been asking for winter songs — and the stories they evoke.

One tough winter in Rhode Island, NPR listener and novelist Thomas Mullen experienced financial ruin with his family. The song that got him through it was R.E.M.'s "Sweetness Follows."

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2:37 pm

Fri January 13, 2012