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The burning question of the week: Is classical music visible enough to a mainstream audience? And do you haveto memorize music to be a great artist? All the classical music world's news, collected for your pleasure. Plus: Portlandia, Second City and music critic/killing machine Stephen Hawking.

Catfish eating pigeons, water travelling uphill, a blue whale barrel roll — where can one see such things? The scientific journals! Flora Lichtman and Ira Flatow look back on the year's best moments in science cinema. What was your favorite science video of the year?

Cold-water fish, snow-dwelling bugs and some grasses have evolved natural antifreeze proteins to avoid turning to ice cubes. Peter Davies, a biologist at Queen's University in Ontario, discusses how these antifreeze substances work, and their applications for human problems--like keeping the ice out of ice cream.

In Full Planet, Empty Plates: The New Geopolitics of Food Scarcity, Lester Brown says the world's food supply is tightening, and the reasons are many. People in developing countries are eating more meat, a grain-intensive food; farmers are overpumping, causing water tables to fall; and crop yields have plateaued, despite technological advances.

Two years after a food safety bill became law, the FDA issues a rule to prevent foodborne illness in produce and one to require food manufacturers to have plans in place to prevent contamination.

In 2012 the Higgs boson was spotted at CERN, private company SpaceX began supply flights to the International Space Station, and the world bade farewell to the Galapagos tortoise Lonesome George. A panel of journalists discusses the year's top stories in science.

Lincolnton Furniture Company closed abruptly Thursday just one year after it was hailed by President Barack Obama as an example of the recovering U.S.…

Following years of moving jobs overseas, some companies are deciding there are benefits to manufacturing products here at home. Guest host Celeste Headlee discusses the latest jobs numbers and the new trend called "insourcing." Headlee talks with Wall Street Journal reporter Sudeep Reddy and journalist Charles Fishman.

The "ghost gum" trees painted by Albert Namatjira became symbols of Australian identity and were soon to be put on the nation's historic register.

Everyone from the Vikings to 18th century British sailors swore that a pint of spruce beer kept away scurvy. While that may not have really worked, you, too, can capture the essence of your Christmas tree in a glass.

The comet ISON, discovered by two amateur astronomers last year, will zoom past the Earth next fall. But where did it come from? Astronomer Andrew Fraknoi says a passing star could have flung the comet our way from the Oort Cloud, a distant realm of ice chunks at the outer limits of the solar system.

The Barbershop guys talk about which political party seems more bruised now that the battle over taxes has ended. They also guess who will be going down in the NFL playoffs this weekend. Guest host Celeste Headlee checks in with culture critic Jimi Izrael; sports writer Pablo Torre, NPR's Ken Rudin and former chair of the Republican National Committee, Michael Steele.

At No. 9, Kevin Powers' The Yellow Birds details the friendship between two Iraq War vets.

Burry Stander, one of the world's elite mountain bikers, was killed Thursday as he rode his bike in his native South Africa. Stander, 25, a two-time Olympian who placed fifth in his event at the London 2012 Olympics, was reportedly struck by a taxi van as he rode near his home in Shelley Beach.

A new mystery by novelist Zygmunt Miloszewski explores Poland's relationship to its anti-Semitic past. Teodor Szacki, the likably washed-up hero, must sprint all over town interrogating suspects, including so-called Polish "patriots" — extremists who bombard him with their anti-Semitic rants.

Scientists have cooled potassium gas to one billionth of a degree below absolute zero. But in the quantum world, that's actually hotter than the Sun. It's hotter, even, than infinity degrees Kelvin. Vladan Vuletić, a quantum physicist at MIT, talks about this 'Bizarro World' temperature.

Scientists throughout the West are trying to figure out the mystery of the disappearing mule deer. Since the 1970s, biologists in Colorado, Wyoming and Utah have seen deer populations drop by 50 percent. The potential causes vary. Oil and gas development and the growth in coyote populations top the list.

President Obama may go into the next round of fiscal battles without his long-time Treasury Secretary. Tim Geithner reportedly plans to step down in January, even as the Treasury Department is scrambling to avoid cracking the government's debt ceiling. Robert Siegel talks with Scott Horsley about that and other personnel changes as the president prepares for his second term.

Is he a "wimp" who blinked during fiscal cliff wrangling, failing to pursue a grand bargain and weakening his future hand? Or a pragmatist who negotiated a "big win" in securing congressional approval for the first tax increase on the wealthy in more than two decades?

Electric utilities are big beneficiaries of the new tax package. Congress and President Obama decided not to increase taxes on dividends that some companies pay stock holders. The utility industry lobbied hard to make sure that this would be the outcome. That's because if people had to pay more taxes on dividends, utility stock would look a lot less appealing. The companies stocks would take a hit and it would be harder for them to invest in big projects like new power plants and wind farms. Analysts say there's no industry more sensitive to taxes on dividends.