A subway flood expert explains what needs to be done to stop underground station deluges

Images of water gushing into subway stations filled social media following heavy rain in New York City. Solutions are at hands – but it takes money and political will, an expert explains.

Klaus Hans Jacob, Professor of Geophysics, Columbia University • conversation
Sept. 2, 2021 ~8 min

Happy the elephant was denied rights designed for humans – but the legal definition of 'person' is still evolving

Happy has lived alone in captivity for 14 years, but the New York Supreme Court recently denied a legal effort to rehome her.

Joshua Jowitt, Lecturer in Law, Newcastle University • conversation
Jan. 6, 2021 ~7 min


As COVID-19 cases rise again, how will the US respond? Here's what states have learned so far

States have been experimenting with more targeted approaches to slow the coronavirus's spread. Two strategies stand out.

Murray J. Côté, Associate Professor of Health Policy and Management, Texas A&M University • conversation
Oct. 12, 2020 ~8 min

The US isn't in a second wave of coronavirus – the first wave never ended

The recent spike in new coronavirus cases in the US is not due to a second wave, but simply the virus moving into new populations or surging in places that opened up too soon.

Melissa Hawkins, Professor of Public Health, Director of Public Health Scholars Program, American University • conversation
June 30, 2020 ~8 min

Solar farms, power stations and water treatment plants can be attractions instead of eyesores

Are facilities that produce necessities like energy and clean water doomed to be ugly? Not when artists and landscape architects help design them.

Margaret Birney Vickery, Lecturer in Art History, University of Massachusetts Amherst • conversation
May 15, 2020 ~9 min

Archaeologists have a lot of dates wrong for North American indigenous history – but we're using new techniques to get it right

Modern dating techniques are providing new time frames for indigenous settlements in Northeast North America, free from the Eurocentric bias that previously led to incorrect assumptions.

Sturt Manning, Director of the Cornell Tree Ring Laboratory and Professor of Classical Archaeology, Cornell University • conversation
April 29, 2020 ~9 min

How a virus brought New York to a standstill in the summer of 1916

It brought panic, fear and huge pressure on healthcare. Will we get it wrong again?

Gareth Williams, Emeritus Professor of Medicine and Honorary Senior Research Fellow in English, University of Bristol • conversation
April 14, 2020 ~6 min

Coronavirus: Telemedicine is great when you want to stay distant from your doctor, but older laws are standing in the way

The use and support for telehealth has never been higher in the US. Hospitals and patients are flocking to adopt the technology but regulatory roadblocks remain.

Frank V. Zerunyan, Professor of the Practice of Governance, University of Southern California • conversation
April 2, 2020 ~8 min


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