President Obama Calls for a Return to Civility
President Obama, making a pointed appeal for “a spirit of civility” at the annual National Prayer Breakfast, called on Americans to debate the most important issues without demonizing opponents. Civility, the president suggested, is not a sign of weakness. (Mark Silva, Los Angeles Times)

Researchers Detect What “Locked In” Man Is Thinking
Scientists have succeeded in reading the mind of a man thought to have been lacking all awareness after a traumatic head injury, opening a host of questions about what it is to be a sentient person and how we should treat people in his condition. (Jeremy Laurance, The Independent)

Gene Doping Warning
With the Vancouver Olympics approaching, sports regulators are taking note of a new wave of genetic technologies that could one day be used to cheat. Like steroids and other performance enhancers, “gene doping” might soon allow athletes to grow bigger, stronger, and faster via unnatural means. (Richard Lovett, National Geographic News)

Sports as Ethical Training
Professor Michael Allen Gillespie of Duke University argues that American sport teaches that effort leads to victory, a useful lesson in a work-oriented society. Sport also helps Americans navigate the tension between team loyalty and individual glory. (David Brooks, The New York Times)

Should Sports Writers Explore Religion’s Impact on an Athlete?
Sarah Pulliam Bailey: If journalists are asking the right motivational questions (why did an athlete retire? why does he do prison ministry?) they might find religion in the answers. When appropriate, it’s the reporter’s responsibility to dig out the underlying story and present it to readers. (The Wall Street Journal)

Charles Darwin’s Ancestry
Scientists have used DNA from his great-great-grandson to map the “deep ancestry” of the father of evolutionary theory. The results show that he comes from a long line of adventurers, his forebears being some of the first modern humans to leave Africa for the Middle East. (Bonnie Malkin, Daily Telegraph)

British Judge Suspends Sentence of Devout Muslim Because of His Religious Beliefs
“I am going to suspend this sentence for the period of two years based on the fact you are a religious person and have not been in trouble before,” Judge Cherie Booth QC told Shamso Miah at Inner London Crown Court. “You caused a mild fracture to the jaw of a member of the public standing in a queue at Lloyds Bank. You are a religious man and you know this is not acceptable behavior.” (Matthew Moore, Telegraph)

Q&A
Ariel Gore
In her new book, Bluebird: Women and the New Psychology of Happiness, writer Ariel Gore attempts to uncover how women can cultivate happiness. TIME caught up with her to find out what she found makes women happy. (Tiffany O’Callaghan)

BOOKS
Boyle
Boyle’s life and work demonstrate that one could be, simultaneously, a pioneering scientist, a fundamentalist Christian, and a practicing adept. Michael Hunter is not only our leading authority on Boyle and the general editor of his complete works, but also a wide-ranging scholar of 17th-century scientific thought in general. (Michael Dirda, The Washington Post)