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Return of the Looted Treasures     Five cardboard boxes showed up at the Geographic one morning. Their contents: priceless Maya artifacts to be returned to Mesoamerica. Get the story and eye treasures long locked away from public view. From Looted Treasures @ nationalgeographic.com http://www.nationalgeographic.com/treasures/index.html

Feather trade     The 19th-century vogue for feathers as fashion adornments threatened many bird species with extinction. Appalled by the slaughter, socially prominent Bostonians began a campaign for tough new laws to preserve the nation's wildlife. From The Feather Trade: Introduction http://americanhistory.si.edu/feather/

Nature's preservative     Organic Flypaper: Amber Gives a Green Light to Study of Ancient Life. People have made jewelry from amber - hardened tree resin - since the Egyptian era. From Organic Flypaper http://whyfiles.org/008amber/

Amber: Window to the Past     For more than 11,000 years, people have collected, traded, carved, and examined amber; yet much about the substance remains a mystery. For example, no one is certain how amber manages to preserve the organisms entrapped in it (called "inclusions") so exquisitely. It is thought that terpenes, compounds that become linked as the resin hardens, help to preserve the inclusions by dehydrating the organisms and killing any bacteria that might cause decay. From American Museum of Natural History http://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/amber/

Treasures of the World     Stories of several treasures valued beyond price. Traces the growing fame of several cultural icons as they brush up against the events and personalities of their time: tales of mishap and madness, inspiration and intrigue, devotion and discovery. Theft of the Mona Lisa, Guernica, Fabergé Eggs, Hope Diamond, Taj Mahal, Borobudur. From Treasures of the World Home Page http://www.pbs.org/treasuresoftheworld/

Perfect Pearl     History of pearls and how river pearls are made. What's Killing the Oysters? Culture of Freshwater Pearls. How to count thousands of pearls. From NOVA Online | The Perfect Pearl http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/pearl/