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Modern fish traps require pilings that are driven into the riverbed and netting that reaches across part of a river.

Fish Traps Have Been Banned on the Columbia River for Nearly a Century. Could Bringing Them Back Help Save Salmon?

A new experiment is testing the commercial success of fish traps in Washington and Oregon. Even as some conservationists embrace the technique, its return has reopened old wounds among local fishers

The Táin Bó Cúailnge mosaic, made by Desmond Kinney in 1974, is in Dublin.

Ireland Launches Its Permanent ‘Income for the Arts’ Scheme, Becoming the First Government Committed to Paying Artists

The permanent Basic Income for the Arts scheme was announced last fall, following a nearly identical pilot scheme. Come spring, Irish artists will be able to apply for three years of weekly stipends: a value of almost $60,000

Mass-market paperbacks reached their peak between the 1960s and the 1990s.

Have We Reached the Final Days of the Mass-Market Paperback?

One of the largest paperback distributors has decided to stop supporting the format, which has been making reading accessible to the masses since the 1930s

New World screwworm is the name given to the larval, or maggot, stage of the Cochliomyia hominivorax blowfly

Flesh-Eating Screwworms Are Creeping Closer to a Comeback in the United States

Eradicated since 1966, the pests have recently been detected in Mexico within 70 miles of the U.S. border

Boise Whitewater Park includes two adjustable wave features spread over a mile apart. The first is suitable for those beginning to surf, while the second phase is better for advanced levels to put on a show.

Rooted in the American West: Food, History and Culture

How Landlocked Idaho Became a Leader in Urban Surfing

Boise’s wave park is attracting outdoor adventurers—and the innovative public works project is inspiring other cities

Experts at the British Museum examined the coins before returning them to the finders.

Cool Finds

A Family Found These Rare Tudor Coins Buried in Their Backyard. Now, the Trove Is Heading to the Auction Block

Discovered in southern England, the collection features dozens of gold and silver coins dating to the 15th and 16th centuries—including several inscribed with the initials of Henry VIII’s wives

An open-air art gallery at Dublin's Merrion Square park in 2021

Ireland Makes a Program Offering Basic Income for Artists Permanent

After a successful three-year pilot, the country will continue to provide 2,000 artists with $1,500 per month

Only a fraction of the nearly 12,000 proposed amendments to the Constitution have been ratified into law.

Twelve Failed Constitutional Amendments That Could Have Reshaped American History

These proposals sought to change the United States’ name, abolish the presidency and the vice presidency, and set a limit on personal fortunes, among other measures

The annual average concentration of PM 2.5 expected in 2050. 

New Research

Wildfire Smoke Will Likely Kill Thousands More Americans Each Year

A new analysis finds that 30,000 more Americans are expected to die from wildfire-smoke exposure annually by 2050

Sweden's fans wave IKEA flags before a soccer game between Austria and Sweden in Vienna in 2023.

Sweden Releases an Official Cultural Canon That Features IKEA and ‘Pippi Longstocking’—but Not ABBA

Critics of the list, which features 100 artworks and other cultural creations from before 1975, say the selections are exclusionary

Visitors to the Grand Egyptian Museum can view the pyramids.

A Sweeping Transformation Is Underway as the Grand Egyptian Museum Prepares to Officially Open and the Giza Plateau Braces for a Record-Breaking Influx of Visitors

The Egyptian government is making changes to enhance the visitor experience around the pyramids, but are these modifications threatening the livelihoods of local communities rooted in generations-old tourism practices?

Through this model of community-based conservation, Peru’s vicuña population has grown to over 200,000.

How an Ancestral Peruvian Ceremony Is Saving the Once-Endangered Vicuña

Each year in the first weeks of June, Indigenous communities in the Andes form a human chain to corral the camelids and shear their valuable wool

Mainstream providers of shared mobility — such as e-scooters, bicycles and rideshares — often overlook marginalised communities, families and the elderly. NGOs and public agencies are filling the gap.

Making Ride Hailing, Bike Shares and Other Transportation Options Accessible to All

Shared mobility is good for the environment, but not equal opportunity. What can be done to make travel easier for everyone?

People gather on Kaanapali Beach, a popular tourist destination near Lahaina, Hawaii, in August 2024.

Destinations Hit by Natural Disasters Need Tourists Back—but Maybe Not in the Same Way as Before

Places like Maui and Asheville, North Carolina, rebuilding after wildfires and hurricanes, are doing so with a mind to sustainable tourism

Compton printed cotton, designed by Morris in 1896

Why the World Became So Obsessed With William Morris’ Colorful Floral Prints

The British artist’s designs appear on mugs, plates, shoes and more. A new exhibition explores how his signature style became so ubiquitous—and how Morris would feel about his 21st-century legacy

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How Black Americans in the South Boldly Defied Jim Crow to Build Business Empires of Their Own

The Great Migration transformed the nation—but millions of African Americans never left their Southern communities. Their unlikely success makes their stories all the more remarkable

Vultures clean up carcasses quickly, preventing bacteria and pathogens from proliferating. 

When Vultures Nearly Disappeared in India, Half a Million People Died, Too, Study Finds

By being nature’s clean-up crew, the often maligned birds help prevent the spread of diseases, according to a new study

Bleached corals in the Great Barrier Reef during a previous mass bleaching event.

The World’s Fourth Mass Coral Bleaching Event Is Underway—and It Could Become the Worst One Yet

The impacted reefs represent 54 percent of the planet’s total, and that figure is currently increasing by 1 percent each week, NOAA scientists say

Researchers tested 49 medieval coins, finding the older ones were minted from silver Byzantine goods and the newer ones were made of silver mined in western France.

New Research

Medieval English Coins Were Made With Melted Byzantine Silver

Researchers have solved the mystery of the silver coin boom that took place around 660 C.E.

Facsimile of an agricultural scene found in the tomb chapel of Nakht, a scribe and astronomer who probably lived during the reign of Thutmose IV

Stressed About Taxes? Blame the Ancient Egyptians

The civilization developed the world’s first known tax system around 3000 B.C.E.

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