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At the confluence of the Gunnison and Colorado rivers, the town of Grand Junction, Colo., sits in a bowl of a valley ringed by tall mountains, desert mesas and red rock cliffs. For local residents like Victoria Mendoza, sometimes the setting makes her and others feel isolated. "I know we can't really fix this because it's nature," says Mendoza. "I feel like people in our valley feel like there's only life inside of Grand Junction." (Siegler, 10/23)

Patients are usually the subject of scientific studies, not the designers. But a new effort is trying to bring patients’ priorities to the forefront in research on mental health. For months, the Milken Institute and the Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance have been collecting the perspectives of patients with depression or bipolar disorder. The first-of-its-kind survey poses a question patients don’t often get asked: What questions about your health and experience with depression or bipolar disorder would you most like research to help you answer? (Thielking, 10/24)

Are college students “snowflakes” — triggered, traumatized and all together too delicate for the real world? Or are they apathetic — so unconcerned that they can’t be bothered to purchase stamps to send in their absentee ballots? The two characterizations of young Americans are in conflict, observed Melissa Hagan, an assistant professor of psychology at San Francisco State University. (Stanley-Becker, 10/24)