KLMNO

HEalth&Science

TUESDAY, MAY 24 , 2022. SECTION E EZ EE

BY STARRE VARTAN

I

don’t know if I would have made it through the past two years without dancing — wildly energetic dancing. Everyone has

faced pandemic challenges. Mine included a two-week hotel quarantine to get to my ill father in Australia, living with him

for the first time as an adult and, after returning to the United States, getting a tough case of covid-19, including a

months-long recovery. Through it all I’d don my headphones and dance. It wasn’t pretty — often I’d start quietly, calmly and

then go wild, angry fist-pumping wild, until my shoulder was sore. There was also spinning until I was dizzy, flinging myself

horizontally, full-body shaking while weeping, and plenty of stomping. ¶ Even though I’m sure it looked weird, I had to get the

feelings out and it worked. Dancing made me relieved, relaxed and even content in a way that a hard swim or run didn’t. Those

just exhausted my body, but dance emptied my heart and quieted my mind, too. SEE DANCING ON E5

PHOTOS BY STUART ISETT

For Starre Vartan, dancing makes her feel relieved, relaxed and even content in a way that a hard swim or run does not.

“Those just exhausted my body, but dance emptied my heart and quieted my mind, too,” she says.

poised for a big resurgence.

This is good news for existing hydro-

power in those regions, but it also

benefits a growing effort to retrofit

nonpowered dams, or any dams created

for a need other than hydropower, for

electricity production. The effort re-

ceived support in last year’s infrastruc-

ture law, which provided $2.3 billion in

dam funding and $753 million that will

go toward dam safety and environmen-

tal improvements, as well as adding

hydropower to nonpowered dams.

But the push to retrofit dams also

worries some environmentalists, who

say dams can be a source of greenhouse

gas emissions themselves and that con-

verting them to hydropower could wors-

en the problem.

In 2016, an Energy Department study

SEE DAMS ON E6

BY CHRIS IOVENKO

The nation’s famous dams — Hoover

Dam or Lake Powell’s Glen Canyon Dam

— were built during the heyday of

American dam construction, from the

1930 s to 1960s, a symbol of America’s

burgeoning industrial might and a ma-

jor source of renewable energy.

Lately, however, these big Western

dams have been suffering the effects of

climate change. Extreme drought has

drastically reduced reservoir levels and

is causing a decline in electricity pro-

duction from hydropower.

Yet while climate change has parched

the West, these same forces have greatly

increased precipitation in much of the

Midwest, the South and the East. There,

hydropower is gaining momentum, and

supporters say that in many places it is

CLIMATE SOLUTIONS

Giving old dams new life could

spark an energy boom in the U.S.

BY DAWN FALLIK

Rebecca Varney needed Twitter’s

help to find her “bug man.”

Almost 30 years earlier, Varney had

been a bug-obsessed 4-year-old living

in El Sobrante in the Bay Area. She had

started a bug collection and asked her

mom if other people had bigger collec-

tions. Her mom suggested nearby Uni-

versity of California at Berkeley, and

Rebecca wrote a letter to the school,

asking for insect insight.

“My name is Rebecca and I have a

bug collection. I read about yours and

it is bigger than mine is. Can I see it?

Also, I have a question. Do walking

sticks have knees? Sincerely, Rebecca,”

Varney recalled writing.

SEE BUG-MAN ON E4

How he helped

bug-loving girl

reach for PhD

BY STEVEN ZEITCHIK

A few years ago, Emilia Molimpakis
had a destabilizing experience when a
friend who regularly saw a psychiatrist
attempted suicide.
“What I couldn’t grasp was she had
seen her psychiatrist just two days
before,” recalled Molimpakis, who
found her friend. “Why did he not see
this coming?”
Rather than rail against the health
system, Molimpakis took another
route. A postdoctoral neuroscience re-
searcher at the University College Lon-
don, she decided to leave academia and
launch a company. Her goal was to use
SEE GAMING ON E4

INNOVATIONS

Video game

may identify

depression

Anxious, lonely

or angry?

Research suggests it may provide more mood benefits than other types of cardio exercise

Try dancing

THE AMAZON

Animal images are now in

a massive data set. E2

RACISM

It hurt response to plague

in 1900 San Francisco. E3

DINOSAURS

A fossil may give a picture

of the day they died. E2

SISTERS

Twins gave birth to sons

on the same day. E3