Red Sea Coral Reef

Ecolabels, Plastic-Eating Corals, and Vanishing Cars

Are corals digesting plastic? Are gasoline cars about to disappear from our roads? Does the ecolabel on your frozen salmon mean your dinner is sustainable?
Juvenile American Eel

The Final Migration of the American Eel

Every year, thousands of American eels make an amazing migration from their freshwater homes into the Atlantic Ocean, where they spawn and die.
Afghanistan colourful mountains

War Has Made Afghanistan’s $1 Trillion in Minerals Worthless

Developing rare earth mining in Afghanistan has been a potential objective since the USGS estimated the country had $1 trillion in mineral ore deposits.
A Loowatt worker replaces the biodegradable waste-collection bag in a waterless toilet in Madagascar

A Toast to Toilets!

Waterless toilets battle the global sanitation crisis.
Mulberry tree Cambridge

When America Went Crazy for Mulberry Trees

In the early 19th century, mulberry trees became associated with economic prosperity and morally upright productiveness, leading to a speculative bubble.
Colorful donuts with different decorations

The Delicious Democratic Symbolism of…Doughnuts?

Doughnuts became popular during World War I, when Salvation Army volunteers—most of them women—made and served the soldiers million of doughnuts.
Glazed tiles wall of spanish province of Ciudad Real at Plaza de Espana, Seville, Spain

Is Don Quixote to Blame for Modern Movie Reboots?

The culture industry has long repackaged content from the past for the present. Just look at Miguel de Cervantes’s Don Quixote.
colorful pills on black background

Paying People to Take Their Pills

The majority of medication-related hospital admissions were caused by noncompliance—when patients, for one reason or another, don't take their drugs.
antique cans

Frontier America in a Collection of Tin Cans

For Jim Rock, tin cans were as important as shards of ancient pottery. Each can told a story of nineteenth and twentieth century life in America.
Barista Coffee Shop Cafe in Portland Oregon

How Portland Became a Hipster Utopia

How did Portland, Oregon become a hipster haven? While other cities declined in the 60s and 70s, Portland looked at what they did and planned the opposite.