Category Archives: Spring 2021 Print

A firefighter carrying an axe stands behind a branch on fire.

Burning for Change

This article was originally published in our Spring 2021 print issue. William T. Valentine had never seen such a strange sight during his 21 years living in Alameda. And as former chief of the Fire Department, he was pretty used to dealing with peculiar situations.

A variety of vegetables in crates being sold at a market.

I Feel It in My Gut

This article was originally published in our Spring 2021 print issue. In the mid 1880s, Austrian pediatrician Theodor Escherich discovered the gut flora, noting the impact of Escherichia coli on children’s diarrheal health—a discovery that would forever shape our understanding of human disease and the

A person holds a white pill up to their mouth.

Sex Bias in Pharmacological Studies

This article was originally published in our Spring 2021 print issue. Women have mainly been excluded from studies in pharmacology. This manifests in the exclusion of subject sex in the data parameters/summary and lack of separate analyses between male and female data. Possible dangers of

A medical professional in a mask in of an illustration of the coronavirus, with "COVID-19" typed onto the eye.

Pandemic Preparedness: Where America Fell Short

This article was originally published in our Spring 2021 print issue. The 2020 coronavirus outbreak is not the first outbreak in America. Over a century ago, the 1918 H1N1 influenza sent the world into lockdown. After a grim 675,000 deaths, the pandemic finally slowed, but

A variety of vegetables.

Benefits of Plant-Based Diets in Athletic Performance

This article was originally published in our Spring 2021 print issue. Today, there are several elite athletes who successfully compete and win while eating a plant-based diet. From tennis player Venus Williams to basketball player Kyrie Irving to ultramarathoner Scott Jurek, athletes who compete at

Three rural women walking together down a street in India.

Un-Natural Selection: Female Feticide in India

This article was originally published in our Spring 2021 print issue. India’s skewed sex-ratio due to mass sex-selective abortions is based on the perception that women should be valued less than men in society.  The Issue of Sex-Selective Abortions A pregnant woman sits alone with