One of the simplest examples of how plants adapt to ensure that their species survives is found in pine cones. Evergreen trees that produce cones are called conifers. There are more than 600 species of conifers — which include pines, firs and spruce — each with its own type and size of cones. Species survive by reproducing. Conifers reproduce as their seeds spread, usually by wind. According to the American Conifer Society, pines represent the largest group of conifers, so let’s take a closer look at pine cones, which serve as seed protectors.

Prince Andrew smiled today as he walked the Royal Family into Windsor Castle for a service of thanksgiving for the late King Constantine of Greece in a move that proves he is ‘back in the fold’. In an extraordinary turnaround after he was banned from royal duties and stripped of his HRH and military titles by his mother the Queen just two years ago, the Duke of York led The Firm into church to celebrate the life of the last King of Greece.

Special to the Washington Post Pricing a listing is one of the hardest— and perhaps most important — tasks in residential real estate. Sellers can get it wrong in either direction: If the asking price is too low, the sellers might end up leaving money on the table; if it’s too high, they won’t tap into the right target group, will lose a lot of time and may then end up selling for even less.

A Texas mother had to phone her dying daughter from her hospital bed after the girl was left fatally injured by a ‘recovered’ alcoholic who drove his pick-up into her as she walked home from school. Marissa Burke, 17, was struck in Georgia Avenue on Deer Park by serial offender Leland Smith, 55, who runs a Christian recovery ministry. Marissa’s mother Gloria, who is being treated in hospital for brain cancer, managed to spend a day by her daughter’s side as doctors battled to save her.

Your doctor probably came from someplace else. In any state, typically just a quarter of doctors were born there. And local doctors do not constitute a majority in any state — though Nebraska, at 45 percent local doctors, comes the closest. That kind of mobility is unusual, but so is everything else about the bizarre job market for U.S. doctors. And it raises an obvious question: Where do all those border-busting doctors come from?