For flood-prone cities, seawalls raise as many questions as they answer

Gary Griggs, University of California, Santa Cruz

Many coastal US cities are contending with increasingly frequent and severe tidal flooding as sea levels rise. Some are considering building seawalls, but this strategy is not simple or cheap.

Flawed data led to findings of a connection between time spent on devices and mental health problems – new research

Craig J.R. Sewall, University of Pittsburgh

You're probably wrong about how much time you spend on your devices, and that has big implications for the link between device use and mental health.

The FDA’s weak drug manufacturing oversight is a potentially deadly problem

Adrian V. Hernandez, University of Connecticut; C. Michael White, University of Connecticut

COVID-19 has exacerbated a backlog of domestic and foreign drug manufacturing inspections that the FDA is still too short-staffed to adequately deal with.

Transgender medicine – what care looks like, who seeks it out and what’s still unknown: 3 essential reads

Daniel Merino, The Conversation

Across the US, politicians, activists and transgender people are fighting over the right to access transgender medical care. Rarely is the care itself actually discussed. This is that discussion.

Biden’s goal to permanently boost support for families echoes a failed Nixon proposal from 50 years ago – will it take off this time?

Leslie Lenkowsky, IUPUI

Starting in July 2021, most US families will get monthly payments from the IRS of either $250 or $300 per child under 18.

What is the religious exemption to Title IX and what’s at stake in LGBTQ students’ legal challenge

Kif Augustine-Adams, Brigham Young University

Around 100,000 LGBTQ US students study at religious institutions that can legally discriminate against them. A lawsuit seeks to end that religious exemption but faces an uphill struggle.

How Vladimir Putin uses natural gas to exert Russian influence and punish his enemies

Lena Surzhko Harned, Penn State

Nord Stream 2 is a pipeline that will deliver Russian gas to Western Europe – and, by extension, increase Putin's influence across the continent. That makes Ukraine and some other countries nervous.

I have city kids make comic books to create a buzz about mosquitoes and ecology

Katherine Richardson Bruna, Iowa State University

A hands-on approach to learning about bugs can help students from urban communities take an interest in science.

The surface of Venus is cracked and moves like ice floating on the ocean – likely due to tectonic activity

Paul K. Byrne, North Carolina State University

Researchers used decades-old radar data and found that some low-lying areas of Venus' crust are moving and jostling. This evidence is some of the strongest yet of tectonic activity on Venus.

Does outer space end – or go on forever?

Jack Singal, University of Richmond

Astronomers know a lot about what's in outer space – and think it's possible it never ends.

White Gen X and millennial evangelicals are losing faith in the conservative culture wars

Terry Shoemaker, Arizona State University

Growing numbers of young evangelicals and 'Exvangelicals' are pro-LGBTQ, support #BlackLivesMatter – or are fed up altogether with mixing faith and politics.

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