Lasting Love
Helen Fisher, with colleagues Bianca Acevedo and Lucy Brown, did brain scans on couples who’d been in love for decades and found that the sight of your longtime mate triggers the same brain reaction as new love. “When you’ve just fallen in love, when you’ve been rejected in love, and when you’re in long-term love, the same brain region that makes dopamines becomes activated,” said Fisher. (Tracy Smith, CBS Sunday Morning)

Sudden Love
She was a gorilla. Barb was a human. And between them, the strangest thing happened. (Robert Krulwich, NPR)

Radical Forgiveness in Rwanda
During the genocide that wracked this African country of 10 million people for 100 days in 1994, Saveri Nemeye murdered Rosaria Bankundiye’s sister, along with her nieces and nephews. Genocidaires also attacked Rosaria, her husband, and their four children with machetes and left them for dead. Only Rosaria survived. Yet when Saveri came to beg her forgiveness after he was released from prison in 2004, Rosaria considered his request and then granted it. (Amy Sullivan, USA Today)

Social Studies Showdown Continues in Texas
Merely weaving important religious trends and events into the narrative of American history is not what the Christian bloc on the Texas board has pushed for in revising its guidelines. Many of the points that have been incorporated into the guidelines or that have been advanced by board members and their expert advisers slant toward portraying America as having a divinely preordained mission. (Russell Shorto, The New York Times Magazine)

Religion Is a Big Reason for Home Schooling
The number of parents who opt to teach their children at home is rising, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. Two years ago, about 1.5 million students were home-schooled, up from 1.1 million seven years ago and 850,000 in 1999. The center found that the most common reason that parents gave for opting out of the traditional classroom setting was religious or moral. (Jaclyn Youhana, The Journal Gazette)