What is lost when people spend more time online or on their phones and less time reading a book? What do we lose as individuals and a society, when people stop reading? And why should educational curriculums not neglect the arts and humanities in the push to promote STEM?

Within an hour of submitting my bird report for last week, in which I confidently declared that Hurricane Jose had brought no storm-blown tropical birds to Massachusetts, I received a text message that would prove me wrong. A mysterious and apparently sick bird had been called in from LeCount’s Hollow Beach in Wellfleet.

We live in a beautiful part of the world that attracts tourists and second home owners. While these individuals contribute greatly to our economy, they’re also driving up the price of real estate and reducing the availability of year round housing. It’s not just low income wage earners who are affected; workers in the middle income bracket also struggle to find and afford housing in our region. Two nonprofits have teamed up to help boost affordable housing production; they're calling it the Cape Housing Institute. On The Point,  Mindy Todd hosts a discussion on affordable housing and potential solutions.

Paradise Valley is a glacial hollow set on the Wellfleet-Truro line. During the late 19th century it was a thriving community of a dozen or more houses, but when Wellfleet’s Herring River dike was built around 1908, the valley was cut off from navigable waters. The community gradually atrophied and was eventually abandoned by the 1920s.

Heart disease is the leading cause of death globally, claiming the lives of more people than live in Massachusetts each year. We tend to diagnose these diseases only after there are severe problems that can be difficult to treat. But what if a non-invasive test existed that could predict your risk of heart disease years, even decades, before there were any symptoms?

Microbiologist Jack Gilbert says, as parents, we’ve been making a mistake in over-sterilizing our environment. For one thing, we shouldn’t keep our children from getting dirty outside or sterilize them as soon as they come inside. We should let the dog lick them. Sure, wash their hands a lot when it’s cold season, but don’t be afraid of a little dirt.

There aren’t many lists that include both Sir David Attenborough and David Bowie – who, by the way, turned down his own offer of knighthood. But here's one such list: the names of new species of smiley-faced spiders in the Caribbean. 

Chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, is associated with repeated head trauma and it has been found in many football players' brains. Most recently, that of deceased Patriots player Aaron Hernandez.

The association with America’s favorite sport has turned this mouthful of biomedical jargon into a household phrase, but we still don’t have a way to diagnose the disease until after death.

That could change. 

The Youth Ambassador Program (YAP) is a project between the National Park Service, and Third Eye Youth Empowerment in New Bedford, Massachusetts. Founded by Ben Gilbarg and Frankie Barrows. YAP members communicate national park themes  and local history through hip hop. 

Lucile Burt reads her poem, "Neither Created Nor Destroyed."