robert bazell, nbc news, new york. >>> up next here tonight, dr. martin luther king, jr., in his own words in the lost tape we have not been able to hear until now. >>> the latest picture from mars is just a photo of tire tracks on mars, but roll that thought around in your head for a while. those are tire tracks on mars from a vehicle nasa landed there, the new mars rover curiosity taking its first tentative test-drive around its new neighborhood. by the way, they have named the landing site bradbury after the late great ray bradbury of science fiction fame, who would have turned 92 today. sadly, he did not live long enough to see this. >>> a piece of american history we did not know we had has been discovered in a box in an attic in chattanooga, tennessee. it's reel to reel audiotape of an interview with the reverend dr. martin luther king, jr. the best thing we can do here is let you listen to a portion of what dr. king said about the progress toward civil rights. as a young man of just 31 years of age, this was recorded just four days before ch

we get our report tonight from our chief science correspondent robert bazell. >> jordan. >> reporter: 14-year-old jordan conner is home from the hospital, where doctors diagnosed west nile virus infection that had spread to her brain, what's called encephalitis. she thinks she knows where she got infected. >> i was baby sitting a dog, and like five mosquitos bit me on my leg. >> reporter: the virus is transmitted by mosquitos and spread by infected birds. this year officials recording a near record number of cases. hardest hit is the dallas/ft. worth area where jordan conner lives. health workers are going door to door, warning about the danger, and spraying is underway in neighborhoods. the major cause, the weather. the first four months of the year in dallas, 70% above average rainfall, and then it gets hot and dry. in the last few months, they've had less than an inch of rain. insect experts say hot, small pools of water allow mosquitos to breed repeatedly and quickly. most of those infected with west nile have no symptoms. some have flu-like illnesses, and a small number like jord

robert bazell, nbc news, new york. >> we wanted to let you know all day tomorrow, nbc news will have in depth coverage of this historic distraught of 2012, how it's affecting everything from the environment to prices we all pay for food coverage across the many platforms of nbc news. and tomorrow night on this broadcast. >>> overseas now, this was the deadliest day in a year for civilians in afghanistan. a wave of suicide bombings across the country. at least 14 in one city alone, leaving hundreds dead. many targeting afghan security forces. as the civil war in syria continues, the prime minister who defected and escaped to jordan just last week, said the assad regime is near collapse, in fact, and controls just a third of the country now. he urged other officials to defect and join the rebel side. >>> still ahead as we continue along the way tonight. you'll want to see the new crash test. a new way to measure how safe your car is in the real world. and some big brand names are not getting new names. i never meant to... sleep in my contacts. relax... air optix® night & day aqua conta

robert bazell, nbc news, new york. >>> up next here tonight, dr. martin luther king, jr., in his own words in the lost tape we have not been able to hear until now. have not been able to hear until now. [ male announcer ] if you suffer from heartburn 2 or more days a week, why use temporary treatments when you can prevent the acid that's causing it with prevacid24hr. with one pill prevacid24hr works at the source to prevent the acid that causes frequent heartburn all day and all night. and with new prevacid24hr perks, you can earn rewards from dinner deals to music downloads for purchasing prevacid24hr. prevent acid all day and all night for 24 hours with prevacid24hr. to find you a great deal, even if it's not with us. [ ding ] oh, that's helpful! well, our company does that, too. actually, we invented that. it's like a sauna in here. helping you save, even if it's not with us -- now, that's progressive! call or click today. no mas pantalones! who have used androgel 1%, there's big news. presenting androgel 1.62%. both are used to treat men with l

the story tonight from our chief science correspondent robert bazell. >> reporter: on june 13th last year a 43-year-old woman with a lung disease was transferred into the nih clinical center. tests revealed she was infected with common bacteria called klebsiella but a rare and deadly strain. >> this bacteria developed resistance to all known antibiotics. >> reporter: the woman patient recovered and was discharged in july. then in august a 34-year-old man with cancer was diagnosed with the same resistant germ. after that, a frightening average of one patient a month was diagnosed despite strict infection control procedures. >> they weren't sufficient to ensure that there weren't patient-to-patient transmissions within the icu. and that was what scared us. >> reporter: ultimately the resistant strain infected 18 patients. 11 of them died. using the latest gene sequencing technology nih tracked the spread. a contaminated respirator was part of the problem. so were patients who harbored the bacteria for months with no symptoms. the hospital stepped up its precautions even more. doctors s

robert bazell, nbc news, new york. >>> up next here tonight the cost of good intentions and the very bad results. >>> it's been a year today since first word of the news we couldn't believe, the quake that rocked washington, d.c., the tourists are still seeing the after effects of the 5.8 earthquake. there is still netting under the ceiling of union station, scaffolding at the national cathedral spire and the washington monument is still closed. it could take another decade and $20 million more. >>> a dinosaur foot print has been found in a highly unusual place on the grounds of the godard space flight center in suburban maryland. it's been identified as the foot print of what's called an armored type of dinosaur upwards of 110 million years old. >>> the postal service thought it was a great idea a few years back to mark the 20th anniversary of the simpsons with a commemorative stamp. they printed a billion of them and sold only 318 million of them. the extra stamps had to be destroyed because the printed price on them had changed. that wasted $1.2 million. that's the last thing they