Talk of the Nation on KTTZ HD2

Calls continue for boycotts of Chick-fil-A, while supporters are organizing a national "buycott." But Chick-fil-A is far from the only business to incorporate political or religious values into their business — or to stumble or jump into the culture wars in the process.

In their new book, Resilience, Andrew Zolli and Ann Marie Healy examine how institutions and people respond to disruptions. By studying how systems--from coral reefs to Lehman Brothers--respond to change, Zolli argues that we can be better prepared for unexpected events.

In the face of a massive drought and climbing sea levels are the presidential candidates going to talk about climate change? Why is science always at the bottom of the list of campaign issues that resonate with the public? Ira Flatow and guests discuss what scientists can do to shape the national dialogue in an election year.

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The universe is being pushed apart at a faster and faster rate. And the culprit? Dark energy. Astrophysicist Adam Riess shared the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics for that discovery, and now's your chance to ask him about it--or anything else you've been wondering about the cosmos.

Bioengineers are developing microchips, about the size of a thumb, that can behave like human organs. Donald Ingber, director of the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, discusses how the "organ-on-a-chip" works and why the technology could replace the animal model for drug testing.

A number of events got started even before the official opening, including men's and women's soccer. Already, the US women's team has claimed its first win. NPR sports correspondent Tom Goldman reports from London with a look at what to watch for at the 2012 Olympic Games.

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NEAL CONAN, HOST:

This is TALK OF THE NATION. I'm Neal Conan in Washington. We usually hear about the civil war in Syria from cell phone videos posted by anti-government activists to YouTube or government press releases from Damascus. Usually, those stories can't be verified because very few journalists have been allowed in.

Ben Gibbard of Death Cab for Cutie is a lifelong Seattle Mariners fan, and such an Ichiro Suzuki devotee he wrote a song about the outfielder. Though he wrote it years ago, he decided this week — when Suzuki was traded to the New York Yankees — was the right time to release "Ichiro's Theme."

From the sex-abuse case at Penn State and in the Catholic church to the unethical accounting practices at Enron, top officials sometimes opt to hide and obscure instead of telling the truth. Cover-ups often start small, and grow into scandals that tarnish the reputations of entire institutions.