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Cities

Hunting and gathering, Metro sapien-style, in Vancouver's Granville Island Public Market.

Anthropocene

Humans Are Becoming City-Dwelling “Metro Sapiens”

To achieve sustainability, the human species needs to embrace its urban side, argues public health researcher Jason Vargo

The dense metropolis of Tokyo sparkles like an urban playground at night.

Anthropocene

Are Megacities Friend or Foe in the Fight Against Climate Change?

Like the people who call them home, cities have the potential for good and bad when it comes to adapting to a warming world

An illustration from Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper that depicts soldiers raiding an illegal distillery in Brooklyn in 1869.

The Whiskey Wars That Left Brooklyn in Ruins

Unwilling to pay their taxes, distillers in New York City faced an army willing to go to the extreme to enforce the law

A bed bug surrounded by potentially parasite-laden feces.

New Research

Bed Bugs Can Transmit the Chagas Disease Parasite

The parasite is usually associated with Latin and South America, but was recently found throughout Louisiana, too

This twisted wing parasite is one twisted killer.

The Everyday Cannibals and Murderers of Los Angeles

Who needs film noir when you’ve got these insects in the City of Angels?

Cool Finds

Humans Outnumber Rats in NYC

There’s actually about one rat for every four people

Cool Finds

We Can Measure How Traffic Vibrates the Earth

Special instruments called geophones help researchers distinguish the signatures of big trucks rumbling down the highway and planes taking off

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Cool Finds

Someone Just Bought an Entire Connecticut Ghost Town for $1.2 Million

Johnsonville was once a 62-acre mill village

Introducing Rana kauffeldi, a newly recognized New York City resident.

New Research

New Leopard Frog Found in New York City

The unique species, discovered near the Statue of Liberty, is the first amphibian found in the region in 150 years

A shrine marking London's Cross Bones Graveyard.

Halloween

The London Graveyard That’s Become a Memorial for the City’s Seedier Past

Thousands of bodies from London’s first red light district are buried beneath a lot in the South Bank, an area under massive redevelopment

When Dazzling Art Transforms the Cityscape

Janet Echelman’s sky-high sculptures, created from miles of fiber, cast a magical spell over urban spaces

An endangered green sea turtle in Hawaii that has contracted fibropapillomatosis.

New Research

Pollution From Hawaii Is Giving Sea Turtles Gross, Deadly Tumors

Nitrogen runoff gets into the turtles’ food and causes tumors on their faces, flippers and organs

The movement to dramatically reduce car traffic is picking up speed.

Anthropocene

Helsinki Has a Plan to Get People to Stop Owning Cars

A system being developed in Finland would allow people to subscribe to all kinds of mobility options and pay for everything on their phones

Paris has spread along the banks of the Seine since 1900.

Age of Humans

Make Cities Explode in Size With These Interactive Maps

From Los Angeles to Lagos, see how megacities have been taking over the planet during the past 100 years

An artist renders the proposed master plan of Masdar City.

Building the World’s First Carbon-Neutral City

Masdar City, near Abu Dhabi, boasts green buildings, a fleet of electric cars and massive solar arrays. But will the experiment work?

Esplanade park in Helsinki

Cool Finds

In the Summer, Helsinki’s Buildings Are Cooled by an Underground Lake

Underneath a park in Helsinki, Finland is a lake used to cool buildings in the city

Close-up of a surgeon's amputation kit

Before Dr. Mutter, Surgery Was a Dangerous and Horrifically Painful Ordeal

The talented doctor changed the way the medical profession operated

Annecy is known as the Venice of Savoie, a region in France.

10 Historic Canal Towns to Visit That Aren’t Venice

Venice might be the most famous town to feature picturesque waterways, but beautiful canals can be found all over the globe

An urban spider hangs out in downtown Los Angeles.

New Research

Friendly Neighborhood Spiders Get Bigger in Cities

A study of orb-weaving spiders in Australia shows a correlation between urbanization and fatter arachnids

Survival tools and various equipment are displayed at the headquarters building of the Tokyo Rinkai Disaster Prevention Park recently developed on the waterfront on Sunday, January 20, 2013

Cool Finds

Tokyo Has Built Disaster Preparedness Into the Fabric of the City

Refuge parks stocked with food and water are ready for the next disaster

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