There’s a lot we don’t know about respiratory viruses and how they spread. A Columbia study currently underway seeks to unravel these mysteries, in part by studying people who are healthy enough to be walking around Manhattan.

Researchers from the Data Science Institute will use the grant to conduct ecological research in Puerto Rico, where they’re studying the effect of Hurricane Maria on El Yunque National Forest, the only tropical rainforest in the U.S. Forest System.

“Thinking about ways to increase soil carbon storage is a really important weapon in the arsenal [against climate change],” said Ben Taylor, an ecosystem ecologist and Ph.D. candidate in Columbia University’s Department of Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Biology.

David Kipping, an assistant professor of astronomy, has been named a recipient of the prestigious 2018 Sloan Research Fellowship, which honors early-career scholars whose achievements have set them apart as up-and-coming leaders in the scientific community.

In a new study, Columbia researchers have mapped out a stew of discarded pharmaceuticals dissolved throughout the Hudson River. They say that in some places, levels may be high enough to affect aquatic life.

Nima Mesgarani, a principal investigator at Columbia University's Zuckerman Institute, deciphers how the human brain distinguishes and interprets the sounds we hear. Now, he’s being recognized as one of 2018’s top innovators for his achievements.

Andrew Robertson, a climate scientist at Columbia's International Research Institute for Climate and Society, is creating a forecasting system that can predict sub-seasonal weather and climate fluctuations for the time period of a week to a month ahead.