Science & Health
New York City Mayoral Race Frontrunner Promotes Plant-based Eating
By Akil Kasubhai If elected mayor of New York City, Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams will become the first vegan to hold that position, which he plans to use to persuade others to eat less meat and way more vegetables. After dealing with the crippling symptoms of type 2 diabetes Adams turned to a plant-based […]
Public Garden Soothes Amid Pandemic
By Ama Anwar Spectrum staff After being closed for more than four months, the 250-acre New York Botanical Garden re-opened to the public on July 28. Eileen Vurgos, a social worker from the Upper West Side, was one of the first people to glide through its entrance gates. After so many months either under quarantine […]
Doctor Discrimination Against LGBT Banned
By Sneha Dey Spectrum staff Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, 43, sat in a hospital room waiting for the kind of medical questions that might be considered a kiss-and-tell about his sexual history. But, that day, the doctor never asked about that history, or about whether Daskalakis wanted a standard test for HIV, which straight and gay […]
Tackling Latinos’ Fears About Mental Illness, Care
By Enmanuel De La Rosa Spectrum staff For the last 15 years, the Rev. Juadan Rodriguez, 40, a social worker and a preacher, has been counseling people with mental illness. Almost all of them have been Latino, and many of those Latinos have been reluctant to view mental illness as just another kind of sickness that needs to be treated. “Mental illness is not […]
Studying the Noise-y Nature of New York City
By Jayla Cordero Spectrum staff Most New Yorkers know how noisy the city can get. There’s blaring music, honking car horns, jackhammers, emergency sirens, kids screaming and whole lot less quiet than many–if not most–other places. The city is so noisy, in fact, that researchers at NYU’s Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Human Development […]
Obesity Therapy Becomes Another Level of Attack Against Fat
For more than 10 years now, Sylvia Martinez, a licensed creative arts therapist based in the West Village, has used art therapy as part of her work to help obese people loose weight and get to root of why they overeat. With paintbrushes and pencils, Martinez teaches clients to express their feelings toward their condition. […]
Cooper Union Grooms Girls for STEM Careers
Giving in to her parents’ wishes, Kavya Udupa, a ninth-grader then, reluctantly took her first computer class in C++, an all-purpose computer programming language. She liked it more than she expected. Now 16, Udupa not only loves computers, she’s also exploring career possibilities in science, technology, engineering and math, a group commonly referred to as […]
Where Good Food Is Less Abundant, Farm Project Delivers a Harvest
Chef Louise Noel had just finished stir-frying kale, cabbage, chick peas and garlic scapes, sprinkled with assorted spices, when Leslie Daly and Paul Daly approached. “What’s in this?” the husband said, holding his head back, then dumping the paper cup containing a spoonful of Noel’s dish into his mouth. The Dalys sampled Noel’s cooking. […]
New Anti-AIDS Initiative Targets Young, Straight Males of Color
To slow the spread of HIV/AIDS by and among young, heterosexual males of color and encourage them to engage in a more public conversation about the disease, a Harlem-based group with citywide reach has launched its Young Men’s Initiative. During its inaugural daylong Young’s Men Summit, a July 21 workshop series, group leaders and some […]