(Press release) A new book about Ronald Coase, the British economist whose insights into transaction costs changed the way economists understood the costs and potential barriers to exchanging goods and services, was released today by the Fraser Institute, an independent, non-partisan Canadian public policy think-tank. In 1960, while working at the University of Virginia, Coase wrote his most famous paper, “The Problem of Social Cost.”
Obesity is a risk factor for numerous diseases, including cancer and type 2 diabetes. This risk extends to future generations, as parental obesity can leave epigenetic marks in egg and sperm cells that affect the metabolic health of offspring formed from those germ cells. “The health status of the parents matters,” says Zhen Yan, a physician scientist at the University of Virginia. In a new study, Yan and his colleagues investigated whether exercise started during pregnancy is enough to improve offspring health in mice.
COVID-19 cases in Northern Virginia, state approaching 2020 numbers; new peak possible in early fall
The surge over the past six weeks is due to spread of the Delta variant, which now exceeds 70% of all new cases in state, according to the Biocomplexity Institute at the University of Virginia. “Delta poses a significant public health concern,” the UVA Institute wrote in its July 30 modeling update on the pandemic. “It is considerably more transmissible and is thought to be largely responsible for the recent surge of cases in Virginia. Delta also causes more severe cases than prior variants.”
UVA’s Alderman Library is in the process of getting a major renovation. The library was built in 1937, and since then it has been of the most popular libraries on Grounds. Now, some of the students who used this library are working on-site with the renovation process. “It’s been really cool. I’ve gotten to be on-site every day and make sure I get to walk through the buildings, see what’s going on,” Sarah Besecky, a civil engineering student, said.
(Editorial) Let’s talk sports. There’s a direct line between Charlottesville and the Olympic medals podium in Tokyo – and it marches through the University of Virginia Grounds.
(Editorial) With computer hacks on massive scales now a frightening reality of modern life, the discovery by UVA researchers of a computer chip security flaw is a welcome piece of progress. That information can help designers correct the problem and potentially thwart hackers in the future.
A great deal of UVA alumna Kate Orff’s work addresses the inescapable fact that the Atlantic Ocean is rising, and coming for the land. She’s the founder of the design firm SCAPE, the director of the Urban Design Program at Columbia University, and the first landscape architect to win a MacArthur “genius” grant. She’s at the forefront of an emerging approach to climate resilience that argues we should be building with nature, not just in nature.
Virginia could be on the path to exceeding its worst months of the pandemic in September if cases and vaccination rates stay the same while the delta variant spread accelerates, according to projections from the University of Virginia’s weekly COVID-19 report.
Five new state historical highway markers that highlight Asian American Pacific Islander history will be displayed across Virginia. Gov. Ralph Northam announced that the new markers Tuesday, noting that the markers were submitted by Virginia students through a contest in May which is AAPI Heritage Month. Outside of Charlottesville “W. W. Yen” will be featured for being the first international student to earn a bachelor’s from the University of Virginia in 1900 and for being a leader in China during the early 20th century.
When Alexandre Soued and Helal Lootah left the UAE to study for their degrees abroad eight years ago, little did they know how central a role financial literacy would play in their lives. The high-school friends, who met at Dubai English Speaking College in 2011, admit they found it initially difficult to manage their money at university. Soued, who was attending the University of Virginia, turned to budgeting apps, such as Mint, to stay on top of his budget. Lootah, who was studying law at the University of Exeter in the UK, relied on a simpler way to manage his money, by tallying up receipts...
(Commentary) Just one week out of the University of Virginia, with a degree in economics and foreign policy, Gina Bennett started working at the State Department as a clerk-typist in June 1988. After a couple of months, Bennett’s boss told her, “Gina, you don’t belong here. I’m going to promote you so you can get a job as an intelligence analyst.” Today, 33 years later, as the 20th anniversary of 9/11 approaches, Bennett is a member of the CIA’s Senior Analytic Service working as senior counterterrorism adviser at the National Counterterrorism Center. No one in the US government has tracked al...
She’s a Sarasota native, and now an Olympic silver medalist. 19-year-old Emma Weyant is back home after finishing second in the Women’s 400m individual medley in the Tokyo Olympics. Weyant was greeted by her father and mother at Tampa International Airport Monday night. She describes everything that’s happened the last couple of weeks as a dream come true. Weyant is heading to the University of Virginia and working towards a shot in the Paris 2024 Olympics.
A victory by coal industry lobbyist Mike Carey would give Trump a chance to reclaim a large measure of influence within the Republican Party; a defeat would trigger more questions about the real value of an endorsement from the former president. “If Trump loses this one, going forward, I can see him being more cautious about handing out endorsements,” said J. Miles Coleman, an associate editor with the University of Virginia Center for Politics.
Using anti-discrimination laws “to force conscientious objectors out of the wedding business is a greater wrong. She must permanently surrender either her conscience or any opportunities in the wedding business.” —Douglas Laycock, religious liberty scholar at the University of Virginia.
Dr. Lou Bloomfield, fellow physicist and professor at the University of Virginia, has made a video on the physics of uneven bars.
The rate of COVID cases relative to population is higher in Florida, where 61% of the population is now vaccinated, than anywhere else in the country. Gov. Ron DeSantis has said “no to restrictions, no to mandates.” Dr. Taison Bell, an assistant professor at the University of Virginia and director of UVA’s medical intensive care unit, said he sees a connection between “high tourism, a lax approach to public health mitigation measures and low vaccination rates.” He said Florida fits into that category.
The article includes a Q&A with Malo A. Hutson, the new dean of UVA’s School of Architecture.
Amber McBride is the author of “Me (Moth),” a Summer/Fall 2021 Indies Introduce young adult selection and a July/August 2021 Kids’ Next List pick. McBride is currently a professor of English at the University of Virginia. Kelsy April of Bank Square Books and Title IX Books in Mystic, Connecticut, and Savoy Bookshop in Westerly, Rhode Island, served on the panel that selected McBride’s book for Indies Introduce. April called the book “incredible. Poetic. Jaw dropping,” and said, “It’s hard to find the words to describe how amazing this book is. Two lost souls finding each other and themselves, ...
Virginia Tech’s Feed the Future IPM Innovation Lab is celebrating the work of 27 students funded by one of its projects. The IPM Innovation Lab collaborates with Tribhuvan University and the University of Virginia’s Biocomplexity Institute to assess the spread of invasive weeds over the last 30 years — based on elevation and under different climate scenarios — in central Nepal. The project has found that as climate change events continue to occur, invasive weeds are spreading faster and higher than ever before.