Personality Analysis—For Fish (Knowable Magazine)
by Kate Laskowski
Are our personalities a matter of nature or nurture? Genetics or epigenetics? For humans, the answers are complicated. But a remarkable fish offers a useful model that scientists are investigating.

The Birth of Espresso (America Domani)
by Ian MacAllen
All the espresso-based drinks found at your local coffee shop owe their existence to a series of clever Italian inventors. As for the fact that the person serving them is called a barista? Thank Mussolini.

Honoring the Cosmos with Paper Figures (Sapiens)
by Alan Sandstrom and Pamela Effrein Sandstrom
In Veracruz, Mexico, Nahua people make a mountain pilgrimage carrying more than 10,000 intricately cut human-like paper figures. What can this ritual teach us about the group’s view of the cosmos and our own interrelationship with the other-than-human world?

Recycling from Drain to Tap (Yale Environment 360)
by Jim Robbins
San Francisco is pioneering increasingly thrifty ways to reduce water waste, like purifying and reusing what goes down the drain again and again within the same building.

Tracing the Roots of Neoliberal Values (Public Books)
by Iana Robitaille
Who doesn’t want to be creative, passionate, and confident? These qualities are deeply ingrained in our culture. But how did they get there? And what do they mask about the structural issues that shape our jobs and our lives?

Got a hot tip about a well-researched story that belongs on this list? Email us here.