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A pair of pangolin leather cowboy boots (left) and arapaima cowboy boots (right), both listed for sale on eBay

Cowboy Boots Purchased in the U.S. Played Part in Pangolins’ Decline

Before 2000, imported pangolin skins were widely used in the production of exotic leather accessories

The Tokyo 2020 Olympic Medals Will Be Made of Recycled Materials

The design for the medals, created by Junichi Kawanishi, were unveiled this week

Hebrew Inscription Emerges From Ruins of the Great Synagogue of Vilna

Other finds from a recent excavation include a prayer book and 200 gold coins

L to R: Jacket, Mariano Fortuny y Madrazo (Spanish, 1871–1949), 1920s–30s; Evening Dress, Madeleine Vionnet (French, 1876–1975), spring 1931; Evening Dress, Gilbert Adrian (American, 1903–1959), fall 1945

Couture Covering 96 Years of Fashion Is Coming to the Met’s Costume Institute

A little-known couture collector has gifted the museum 165 items drawn from her collection of approximately 15,000 pieces

Well, that stinks.

Heading to the Beach? Beware the Fecal Bacteria

A new report found that more than 2,600 sites in the U.S. and Puerto Rico were “potentially unsafe” for at least one day in 2018

When does a joke become a dad joke? When it becomes apparent.

New Research

Laugh Tracks Make Bad Jokes Funnier, According to Science

The bursts of audience laughter hated by TV critics do induce laughter, meaning the sit-com giggles are here to stay

Volcanic deposits found at Pompeii could yield insights on Vesuvius' future

Why Archaeologists and Volcanologists Are Clashing Over Excavations at Pompeii

Volcanologist Roberto Scandone argues that enthusiasm for archaeology has yielded an “act of vandalism to volcanology”

Exterior view of the Führerbau photographed in September, 1938.

Investigation Identifies Nazi-Looted Art Later Ransacked From Hitler’s Headquarters

Near the end of WWII, Munich civilians plundered food, liquor, furnishings and some 700 works of art, most of which wer stolen property, from the Führerbau

A baby croc is held up in front of the Turkey Point wildlife preservation area in 2008.

Why Florida Crocs Are Thriving Outside a Nuclear Power Plant

But is the Turkey Point Nuclear Generating Station the reptilian utopia that it seems?

Members of the control group showed none of the behavioral and physiological changes seen among the experimental clutches

New Research

Unhatched Bird Embryos Communicate With Siblings by Vibrating Their Shells

Baby seabirds exposed to nestmates’ warnings exhibit behavioral and physiological adaptations designed to help avoid predators

Cool Finds

It Took Two Years for Global Experts to ID This Little Shard of Roman Glass

The rare blue-green glass was unearthed at the Chedworth Roman Villa in the U.K.

Trending Today

Plaque Memorializes First Icelandic Glacier Lost to Climate Change

In 2014, the Okjökull was declared dead after dwindling from over 5 square miles to a mound of “dead ice”

Judy Chicago at the 2017 Yes! Gala at Brooklyn Museum

Judy Chicago Retrospective to Look Beyond ‘The Dinner Party’

The largest exhibition of Chicago’s work to date at the de Young Museum in San Francisco will highlight the diversity of the artist’s oeuvre

No pizza rats here

Trending Today

London Signs Up as First ‘National Park City’

The city has commited to upping its greenspace to 50 percent and making the urban landscape healthier, greener and more beautiful by 2050

The newly identified American Pocket Shark was first discovered in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010.

This New Shark Species Looks Like a Tiny Sperm Whale

The 5.5-inch-long Mollisquama mississippiensis—one of only two pocket shark specimens known to science—also glows in the dark

Former U.S. ambassador to Canada David Jacobson visits Alert on a much cooler day in 2010.

Trending Today

The World’s Northernmost Permanent Settlement Set a Record High Temperature

The military installation of Alert on Ellesmere Island, 600 miles from the North Pole, hit 69.8 degrees Fahrenheit last week

A rendering of the 363-foot Saturn V projection

Future of Space Exploration

Watch the Apollo 11 Anniversary Show That Was Projected Onto the Washington Monument

The immersive experience combined full-motion projection-mapping artwork and archival footage

The European brown bear hasn't roamed Britain since the Middle Ages—and possibly even earlier.

Wolves and Bears Are Being Returned to a Rare Patch of Ancient Woodland in Britain

The Bristol Zoological Society is launching an animal exhibit that will see the predators share a U.K. habitat for the first time in 1,000 years

Condor 409, pictured here, is the mother of the 1000th condor born since a breeding program was launched to save the critically endangered species.

The California Condor Nearly Went Extinct. Now, the 1000th Chick of a Recovery Program Has Hatched.

“When we confirmed it…it was just this feeling of overwhelming joy,” one wildlife expert said

Biswamoyopterus gaoligongensis

Cool Finds

New Species of Giant Flying Squirrel Discovered in China

Weighing 3 to 4 pounds, the Mount Gaoligong flying squirrel was recently found in Yunnan province

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