Room to breathe

Room to breathe: Reinventing urban design to withstand future pandemics

BY ANNABELLE MATHERS, CIVIL ENGINEERING, 2022 DESIGN BY KRISTI BUI, COMPUTER SCIENCE, 2021

The idea of transforming cities into ideal, or even relatively effective, urban spaces that accommodate physical distancing and large fluctuations in public behavior can seem overwhelming, especially in the tumultuous wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. This task, as a whole, is enormous on an economic, political, and social level, with an innumerable amount of moving parts and complex factors. Fortunately, urban planners, engineers, and architects are working to develop cost-conscious changes that make cities more flexible and functionally dynamic in preparation for future times of great sickness. It may not presently be possible to create components of a city that completely prevent viral transmission; however, this effort may decrease transmission and urban shutdowns, improve quarantine experiences, and accelerate societal recovery.

Across different countries, climates, and local cultures, the priorities of urban inhabitants differ. Thus, there may be widely nuanced applications of solutions pertaining to common areas of concern including offices, environmental psychology, infrastructure, and communal public spaces. Ongoing research now attempts to consider and mull these evolving factors as the wait continues for more consistent statistical analysis. Fear, harbored by a more wary public, now challenges trends like open-concept offices, high density infrastructure, and community spaces that encourage physical interaction. Instead of creating spaces that perpetually enforce social and physical distancing, society may work toward facilitating spaces that are, whenever necessary, creatively flexible enough to accommodate varying degrees of societal change without complete separation and shutdown.

This transitional concept of urban design allows the public to weigh the risks and rewards with societal changes and expenditures, and can be applied toward epidemics of different severities and characteristics. Public health must be maintained; however, the drastic application of rigid lifestyle changes and physical distancing in perpetuity has already pushed people to reevaluate the balance of risk and

PHOTO BY GUS MUELLER, MECHANICAL ENGINEERING, 2023

reward. Urban improvements have to consider this sense of realism, while also envisioning an ingenuitive society beyond its current state. Private homes and spaces highlight the smaller, and realistically easier changes that may still be relatively important to individuals.

Environmental psychology, in particular, permeates the boundaries of public and private spaces. This term refers to the study of the way in which the surrounding world, mostly built and natural environments in this application, affects mental wellbeing. With the lines blurred between work and home during quarantine, the uncomfortable physical and mental confines of homemade office spaces, and rooms in general, are more apparent. In other words, the spatial chaos of quarantine may distort spatial associations and comforts held by the average person. Adaptive spaces in homes are especially helpful for remote workers, where multifunctional rooms and interior setups enable individuals to more comfortably reallocate space for work and leisure.

Public office spaces may also need to question and reorganize spaces and priorities for meetings, cubicles, foot traffic, and shared spaces like kitchens. Offices that lack private, distanced workspaces, and that encourage a high degree of collaboration in shared spaces, now may consider temporary strategies for a more independent, spatially restrictive work environment. Although not every existing office can be retrofitted to become perfectly flexible in terms of physical spaces, it is the general open-mindedness toward preparation and adaptation that may be beneficial.

Additional questions arise regarding whether reinvigorated appreciation for outdoor spaces and spacious interiors will affect architectural design of urban homes that lack the backyards and square-footage of suburban ones. A desire for rooftop and urban gardens, windows, and natural light in homes has the potential to grow considering the burden that a tiny apartment may place on mental health during quarantine.

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OSF Preprints (2020). DOI: 10.31219/osf.io/rf7xa Emerald Open Research (2020). DOI: 10.35241/emeraldopenres.13561.1 KnE Engineering (2017). DOI: 10.18502/keg.v2i2.596

Ecological boomerang: How man-made climate change is biting back

BY CATRIN ZHARYY, BEHAVIORAL NEUROSCIENCE, 2023 DESIGN BY SAM KLEIN, EXPERIENTIAL DESIGN, 2022

Over the past few years, a new moral code including owning up to one’s mistakes and vowing to “do better” has swept mainstream American culture. Not only have people taken personal oaths to hold themselves to a higher standard, but they’re expecting more out of their neighbors, law enforcement, local elected officials, global leaders, and even celebrities.

It’s not surprising that accountability also plays a role in the modern environmental movement, arguably since 2015 when the United Nations published 17 Global Sustainable Development Goals to reach by 2030. Since then, millions have participated in climate strikes, and the 2020 Democratic presidential candidates drafted policies aimed at rectifying the effects of anthropogenic climate change. Both as a global community and nation, people are identifying who and what are at fault for the current frightening state of the natural world. Humanity has caused significant damage to the planet’s atmosphere, oceans, and animal species. In fact, scientists argue that humans have single-handedly caused Earth to enter a new geological epoch: the Anthropocene.

“Humans have single-handedly caused Earth to enter a new geological epoch.”

The Anthropocene’s earliest stage, they suggest, began with the arrival of agriculture, domestication of animals, and wide-ranging deforestation. However, geologists claim the official beginning of the epoch was not until the “Great Acceleration” of the mid-20th century, when the rate of world population growth was at its peak and industrialization was on the rise. The Anthropocene epoch is distinct from the previous geological epoch, the Holocene, because of higher global temperatures and sea level; production and dispersion of new materials like concrete and plastics; harmful levels of certain chemicals in the atmosphere, ocean, and soil; and rapid species extinction and displacement. The rise in global temperature is largely due to the greenhouse effect: the accumulation of gases such as carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and synthetic chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) that all act to trap heat by absorbing longwavelength infrared light being reflected by the Earth. The greatest producer of excess carbon dioxide is, of course, the burning of fossil fuels. Using up a gallon of gas in one’s car adds 20 pounds of carbon dioxide to the air. To an extent, the planet can be very helpful in removing some of this carbon dioxide. Oceans can dissolve it, and plants use it in the process of photosynthesis—remarkably, a tree weighing two tons consumes seven tons of carbon dioxide in its lifetime. Unfortunately, exploitative deforestation and industrial agriculture strip such large tracts of land at a time and so quickly that it is simply impossible for forests to grow back at the same rate as they are being depleted.

Furthermore, global warming leads to more violent weather by changing air and ocean currents and causing a rise in sea levels. It also causes climate zones to move away from the equator and toward the poles, and the equatorial tropic region to shrink. This has drastic effects on the order of the natural world, and, in turn, on human well-being and survival. All species, from animals to plants to diseasecarrying bacteria, must either go extinct or adapt to a new man-made environment—putting agriculture, food and water security, public health, and economies in grave trouble.

One greenhouse gas, CFCs, not only traps heat, but also eats away at the ozone layer: the Earth’s natural shield for lethal ultraviolet-C rays. CFCs are most often used in refrigeration, air conditioning, spray cans, and making foam plastic. On the surface of ice crystals in the stratosphere, CFC molecules are broken up by ultraviolet radiation to release a form of chlorine that destroys ozone gas. A single molecule of CFC lasts for nearly a century and destroys about 100,000 molecules of ozone. Each winter, the Antarctic vortex seals off the southern pole from warmer surrounding air, enabling more ice crystals to form and more ozone to be depleted until temperatures warm again. All that is needed to patch up ozone holes are free oxygen and the sun’s rays, but climate change can make this process unpredictable from year to year by altering the amount of ice crystals that form at the South Pole. Moreover, if CFCs continue to run rampant in the stratosphere, ultraviolet-C rays can reach the surface and cause painful burns and even cancer before the ozone hole manages to close back up with warmer weather.

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The myth of vitamin C

BY CERINA KARR, BIOLOGY, 2023

The coronavirus pandemic triggered a wave of paranoia

that left the public susceptible to a variety of health

related propaganda. These myths likely did more harm than good, as people prioritized toilet paper over the physical distancing and protection protocols that we are more accustomed to now.

Many widespread myths were dispelled by the World Health Organization (WHO). Consuming garlic, drinking alcohol, and exposing yourself to the sun and hot temperatures were all thought to prevent COVID-19. The WHO also stated on its website, “Adding pepper to your soup or other meals DOES NOT prevent or cure COVID-19.” While these myths were easily disproved and clearly lacking in scientific backing, one practice that did not lose popularity was vitamin C supplementation.

At the start of the outbreak in the United States, people across the country, including students on Northeastern’s campus, cleared store shelves of vitamin C supplements — the explanation being that it’s good for your immune system. But, what exactly does vitamin C do, and does it actually protect one against the coronavirus?

Vitamin C has many functions in the body, such as helping to protect cells from oxidative stress (cellular damage that results from normal metabolic processes), the formation of collagen to help wounds heal, and assisting in iron absorption. Regarding the immune system, with which it is most commonly associated, vitamin C is necessary for some immune system cells to function, including phagocytes and T cells. Since cells that are involved in typical immune response require vitamin C, it makes sense that vitamin C supplementation could potentially prevent one from getting sick. However, research on the common cold, led by scientists at the Leibniz University Hannover, has shown that unless a person is deficient in vitamin C, supplementation “may slightly reduce the duration of the illness in healthy persons but does not affect its incidence and severity.”

DESIGN BY KRISTI BUI, COMPUTER SCIENCE, 2021 PHOTO BY PIXABAY

Similarly, there have been no studies so far supporting the idea that vitamin C supplements are capable of preventing COVID-19. If vitamin C could reduce the duration of sickness for those infected with COVID-19, as has been suggested for the common cold, then perhaps vitamin C could play a role in slowing the spread of the disease. This is just speculation, though, and more research is needed to draw any conclusions about vitamin C with respect to the coronavirus.

Interestingly, high doses of intravenous vitamin C are being tested as a treatment for severe COVID-19 cases, and one meta-analysis published in the journal Nutrients in 2019 found that this reduced the duration of stay in the ICU and the duration of mechanical ventilation (for non-COVID-19 patients). This is not yet a standard treatment procedure for ICU patients with COVID-19, and more research is needed on the subject.

Excessive vitamin C consumption has been associated with mild gastrointestinal complications. Otherwise, it is not likely to be harmful to have too much vitamin C in the body, as it is a water-soluble nutrient and excess is simply excreted through urine. The main harm, therefore, would be a false sense of security against contagious diseases like COVID-19 fueled by aggressively supplementing with vitamin C.

You shouldn’t rely on vitamin C to keep you safe from COVID-19 or any other sickness. Vitamin C has the potential to reduce the duration of the illness, but your chances of getting infected are unlikely to change, unless you know you are deficient. The most important practices to keep in mind during this pandemic are wearing facial coverings, physical distancing, washing hands, self-isolating if symptoms present, and following other guidelines provided by the WHO.

Med Monatsschr Pharm. (2009). PMID: 19263912 Nutrients (2019). DOI: 10.3390/nu11040708