A University of Chicago expedition at Tell Edfu in southern Egypt has unearthed a large administration building and silos that provide fresh clues about the emergence of urban life.

You may want to buy healthy food for your family, but if the good grocery stores are far away and pricey and the fast-food outlets are cheap and plentiful, it may be harder to make the healthy choice.

For the first time this year, more people will live in cities than anywhere else on the planet. Speaking to a gathering of urban planners at the World Bank in Washington, New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg urged policy makers and the public to confront the challenges of urban life with a new vision.

Ancient cities arose not by decree from a centralized political power, as was previously widely believed, but as the outgrowth of decisions made by smaller groups or individuals, according to a new study from researchers at Harvard University, the University of Cambridge, and the University of Edinburgh.