Nell Greenfield Boyce

This is a really, really rare ability.

Her team had the dog's owners talk about a brand new toy with another person while the dog was in the same room.

None of the speech was directed at the dog.

Nonetheless, in later tests, when owners asked the dog to retrieve this particular toy out of a pile of toys in another room, the dogs almost always grabbed the right one.

When typical pet dogs were tested in the same way, they didn't get it.

Nell Greenfield-Boyce, NPR News.

Three NASA astronauts are living on the station, along with three Russian cosmonauts and an astronaut from Japan.

NASA astronauts Mike Fink and Zena Cardman were getting everything ready to do a spacewalk that was going to last about six and a half hours.

The plan was for them to install some equipment for a solar array, snap photos of external hardware, and take samples of microbes.

But Wednesday afternoon, NASA said the spacewalk was called off.

The agency cited a medical concern with a crew member.

While saying it would be inappropriate to share more details due to medical privacy, the agency said that the situation was stable.

Nell Greenfield-Boyce, NPR News.

Three NASA astronauts are living on the station, along with three Russian cosmonauts and an astronaut from Japan.

NASA astronauts Mike Fink and Zena Cardman were getting everything ready to do a spacewalk that was going to last about six and a half hours.

The plan was for them to install some equipment for a solar array, snap photos of external hardware, and take samples of microbes.

But Wednesday afternoon, NASA said the spacewalk was called off.

The agency cited a medical concern with a crew member.

While saying it would be inappropriate to share more details due to medical privacy, the agency said that the situation was stable.

Nell Greenfield-Boyce, NPR News.