Despite his success and the boyish good looks that landed him in Cosmopolitan magazine as "Bachelor of the Year" in 2008, the down-to-earth Montana native has always had a greater purpose: To use his passion for the sport to help young adults with cancer.

CNN: STORY HIGHLIGHTS

Don't get carried away thinking there's life on Mars just yet, however, because NASA's boffins aren't sure the organic molecules are native -- they may have come from Earth on this, or a previous mission.

ENGADGET: NASA Curiosity rover digs Mars, finds sulfur, chlorine and organic traces of unknown origin

However, the team still has to determine whether the carbon was native to Mars or it came with Curiosity from here on Earth.

FORBES: Curiosity Finds Hint Of Carbon On Mars

Over the past month, the periodical cicadas of Brood XIII, native to the area, have crawled up roots, through the earth's surface and onto tree trunks everywhere, to moult and spread wings.

ECONOMIST: Cicadas in Illinois

According to one of the NYT sources, another issue could be Google's desire to include 3D imagery from Google Earth in any standalone effort to compete with Apple's native features.

ENGADGET: Rumors about Google Maps app for iOS intensify, claim it's still months away from launch

As well as destroying such native ecosystems, deforestation also diminishes so-called "carbon sinks" -- thereby reducing the Earth's capacity to absorb and re-process atmospheric carbon dioxide -- while also adding to air pollution through the burning of land to clear it for cultivation (sugarcane fields are traditionally fired prior to harvest to remove leaves and drive away snakes).

CNN: Biofuel: Green savior or red herring?