After having a tight restriction on visitors following the surge of COVID-19 cases over the holidays, the UVA Medical Center is now adjusting its policy. Starting at 8 a.m. Tuesday, UVA Medical Center will once again allow one visitor per patient. The easing of restrictions comes as the coronavirus outlook in Central Virginia improves.
While protons populate the nucleus of every atom in the universe, sometimes they can be squeezed into a smaller size and slip out of the nucleus for a romp on their own. Observing these squeezed protons may offer unique insights into the particles that build our universe. Researchers hunting for these squeezed protons at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility have come up empty-handed, suggesting there’s more to the phenomenon than first thought. Ninety nuclear physicists representing 27 institutions contributed to this experiment, including two graduate...
(Podcast) Fiona Greenland, a UVA assistant professor of sociology, talks about her new book, “Ruling Culture: Art Police, Tomb Raiders, and the Rise of Cultural Power in Italy.”
When adjusted for age, Latinos ages 20-49 in Virginia are dying at nine times the rate of Asian Americans, who are dying at the lowest rate, according to a report from UVA’s Biocomplexity Institute.
These different kinds of thinking are the subject of a paper I co-authored recently in the journal PNAS, which has an interesting back story. Zachary Irving is a brilliant young philosopher now at the University of Virginia, well-trained – as philosophers have to be – at thinking about thinking. He is especially interested in the kind of unconstrained thought we have when our mind wanders. Is mind-wandering really distinct from other kinds of thought, like simple distraction or obsessive rumination? And why do we do it so much?
Soon after psychologist James Coan suffered a “widowmaker” heart attack at the age of 49, he was lying on a hospital table in cardiogenic shock with a 50-50 chance of survival. “While I was there, apparently dying, one of the things that happened was a nurse held my hand,” Coan said. “It sort of burned in my memory as an extremely gentle and humane thing to have done.” Coan, a UVA psychology professor, now teaches a course called “Why we hold hands.”
WVU sociology professor Jim Nolan agreed with James Madison, the primary author of the Second Amendment, that citizens should have a right to bear arms. But, this right is not without limits and should not extend to college campuses. Nolan said Madison believed this because it was recorded in the October 1824 minutes of a meeting of the University of Virginia Board of Visitors, of which he and Thomas Jefferson were members. At this meeting the board resolved that “No student shall, within the precincts of the University … keep or use weapons or arms of any kind …”
The number of daily new COVID-19 cases at UVA has fallen drastically from records set just a week ago. The UVA COVID Tracker says there were 26 new cases reported on Wednesday, with all but two of those cases being among students.
The temporary restrictions that were set in place at UVA 10 days ago due to an increase in COVID-19 cases are now being eased.
After essentially locking down Grounds for 10 days, UVA will allow students to gather in groups of six or less and will relax other restrictions.
Dr. Bryan Lewis, an epidemiologist with UVA’s Biocomplexity Institute, said, “The flu has just been fully interrupted by people wearing masks, staying home, by the reduced number of children in schools, etc., and I think a lot of people also got the flu vaccine as well. And so all of those forces combined have really stopped the flu in its tracks.”
In 2007, [UVA alumna] Deanna Van Buren visited a historic African American church in Oakland, California, for a birthday program honoring Martin Luther King Jr. An architect, Van Buren listened with rapt attention as the renowned activist Angela Davis, and her sister, attorney Fania Davis, spoke about restorative justice.
School officials partnered with Novant Health/UVA Health Prince William Medical Center to vaccinate 2,500 teachers in preparation to return all children to in-person learning early next month.
At a time when the COVID-19 pandemic has been a constraining and limiting factor for many artists, the music on [UVA alumnus] Will Overman’s new album is reflecting expansion and growth. Overman released his first solo LP, “The Winemaker’s Daughter,” on Feb. 12.
Last summer at the Alexandria vigils for George Floyd, Audrey P. Davis, director of the Alexandria Black History Museum, collected history as it happened. She said she field-collected at vigils across Alexandria, including one that occurred in front of the Alexandria Black History Museum and the Charles Houston Recreation Center. The UVA alumna wanted to tell Alexandria’s social justice story and capture the historic events occurring following the deaths of Floyd and other Black Americans who had been killed by police officers.
Dr. John B. Gordon III strives daily to live up to the example of excellence set by the two men in his family of educators that he is named after. Those men are his father, a mathematician who was one of the first African Americans admitted to UVA, and his grandfather, who was a well-known pastor who led Bethlehem Baptist Church for 30 years in Church Hill. [Gordon III is a UVA alumnus.]
NASA’s acting chief Steve Jurczyk, 55, personally received congratulations from President Joe Biden an hour after the Perseverance rover successfully landed on the Red Planet. “His first words were ‘Congratulations, man,’ and I knew it was him,” Jurczyk said. “He talked about how proud he was of what we had accomplished.” Jurczyk earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from UVA in electronic engineering and began his NASA career in 1988.
In recognition of Teen Dating Violence Awareness Month, the One Love Foundation is sharing a PSA to spread the message that “love is learned.” The One Love Foundation was launched in memory of Yeardley Love, a former UVA lacrosse player. She died May 3, 2010 after being beaten by her ex-boyfriend, George Huguely.
To be allowed back on campus after winter break, UVA student Jessica Terry said she had to use a COVID-19 test kit that was authorized for at-home collection by the FDA.
Former Fifth District U.S. Rep. Denver Riggleman and Dr. Cameron Webb may no longer be on the campaign trail, vying for the seat in Congress, but they are still plenty busy. Webb serves on the White House COVID Task Force as the White House senior policy adviser for COVID-19 Equity, as well as continuing to take shifts at UVA Health.