Author and University of Virginia professor Gary Gallagher talked about the causes of the Civil War and how memory of that conflict is shaping the debate over displays of the Confederate battle flag.
A group of 55 academic historians is speaking out against the College Board’s recent overhaul of its Advanced Placement U.S. History (APUSH) standards. The professors and scholars met in April to discuss the new APUSH standards and drafted an open letter in response to the AP history framework rewrite. Joseph F. Kett, James Madison Professor Emeritus of American History at the University of Virginia, says the new AP framework fails to provide a proper foundation of knowledge before requiring students to analyze historical events and issues.
The Ebola epidemic in West Africa which has taken the life of over 11,000 people in Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia, may have significantly receded, especially with Liberia being declared Ebola free, but Sierra Leone and Guinea continue to record new cases of the deadly disease. Unlike other medications in development for Ebola, which attack the virus, statins and angiotensin receptor blockers typically used for heart disease work on the host response, or a person’s biological reaction to the virus, says lead study author David S. Fedson, MD, a retired professor of medicine at the Unive...
Gov. Chris Christie is scheduled to announce his entry into the race for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination Tuesday at Livingston High School, his alma mater. What ought to be disconcerting news to Christie: He's well-known among the voters but has low favorability ratings, prompting fivethirtyeight.com, a data journalism site, to declare that Christie doesn't fit the profile of a nominee. Geoffrey Skelley of the University of Virginia's Center for Politics said a Christie buzz is missing among likely Republican primary voters.
One peek at all the electronics under the hood is proof that today’s car is as much computer as engine. Examine the larger picture, and you’ll see how much the stuff related to cars is becoming smarter, too. Smart roads, toll plazas, traffic lights and signs are all increasingly connected to cars. Connected cars are talking to one another, and to the devices over and around them. Often the reasons for this will involve cost savings and faster-moving traffic. Travel will be safer, too, advocates say. "This will be amazing," says Byungkyu Park, a professor at the University...
The Arizona redistricting commission upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday is similar to one recommended by a Virginia governor’s panel in December, giving hope to advocates for a similar commission in the commonwealth. Political observers, however, say Virginia shouldn’t hold its breath waiting. “It would be a wonderful thing to have an Arizona-style redistricting commission in Virginia. It would be just as wonderful to see a unicorn. These events are equally likely,” said Larry J. Sabato, director of the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton over the weekend issued a statement suggesting that county clerks can deny same-sex couples marriage licenses if they have genuine religious objections to the Supreme Court ruling that brought marriage equality to all 50 states. But while it's true that individual officials may be able to refuse service to same-sex couples, it's unlikely that same-sex couples in Texas will be prevented from marrying in the end. "The conscientious objector clerk and the clerk who is willing to issue the license need to just trade place...
A school-record three NCAA men's championships and a top-10 ranking in men's basketball led the University of Virginia to its first Capital One Cup all-sports competition championship for men's sports during the 2014-15 season.
It was a banner year for the University of Virginia athletics department as the Cavaliers racked up an ACC-record three national championships in one academic year - men's soccer, men's tennis and baseball. Now U.Va. has one more "title" to celebrate as it earned its first Capital One Cup all-sports championships for men's sports.
(Co-authored by Micah J. Schwartzman, Edward F. Howrey Professor of Law at the University of Virginia School of Law) In Obergefell v. Hodges, marriage equality for same-sex couples became the law of the land. In the wake of the decision on Friday, focus has intensified on religious freedom for traditionalists. Few of the questions about religious accommodation are novel—they had been playing out in the states for some time. Yet the decision did have important ramifications for the relationship between religion and government in the United States, and it does mark the formal beginning of ...
(By Johann Neem is a professor of history at Western Washington University, an affiliate of the Wisconsin Center for the Advancement of Postsecondary Education, and a visiting faculty fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture at the University of Virginia) Are the humanities useless? Or can they produce “inventions” like the natural sciences? If our only understanding of invention is a technological product, perhaps the humanities are useless. But if we include new insights into culture, insights that transform our relationship with the world around us, then the ...
A speck of tissue is enough to allow doctors at the University of Virginia Medical Center to determine the most-effective ways to treat cancers. The technicians in the clinical genomics lab break down tissue from tumors to identify the DNA sequence of the cancer-causing genes.
Medicine helps fight illness, but finding the right medicine to specifically target a rare form cancer or genetic disease is difficult. However, thanks to new state of the art technology, doctors and clinicians at the University of Virginia Health System are making strides in precision medicine.
Two scientists from the University of Virginia are a few days away from taking part in a space exploration mission a decade in the making. A planetary geologist and astronomer are working with NASA to interpret some of the first high resolution images of Pluto's surface.
Investors who are vigilant about corporate fraud may be looking in the wrong places, according to a study in the journal Review of Accounting Studies from researchers at N.C. State University, George Mason University, the University of Virginia and the University of Cincinnati. Of the 194 surveyed investors, the researchers found that 25 percent had had experiences with fraudulent companies.
David Adjaye is known for his innovative architectural designs. Adjaye is overseeing the newest installment of Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum’s “Selects” series, which spotlights the little-known West African textiles in the museum’s permanent collection. “Textiles, especially West African textiles, often demonstrate a paradoxical juxtaposition of regularity and serendipity,” says Kim Tanzer, a professor of architecture at the University of Virginia. “I see this quality in the walls of the [museum].”
More than 100 journals and 31 scientific organizations have signed new science publication guidelines, called Transparency and Openness Promotion (TOP), published last week (June 25) in Science. Authored by Science editor-in-chief Marcia McNutt and nearly 40 researchers, TOP aims to help scientists and journals understand their respective roles in making sure research integrity is maintained and offer incentive structures for openness. “Transparency and reproducibility are the beating heart of the scientific enterprise,” coauthors Brian Nosek, a professor of psychology at...
While Virginia’s gay community celebrated the U.S. Supreme Court’s historic ruling Friday clearing the way for same-sex marriage in all 50 states, the decision’s immediate impact here was minimal. “It certainly will be a massive undertaking in terms of the number of areas of the law that might be affected,” said A.E. Dick Howard, a professor of constitutional law at the
Thursday’s Affordable Care Act ruling marked the second time in three years that a centerpiece of the health law often called Obamacare came under heavy legal assault and survived. It cost Chief Justice John Roberts about 5,700 words (21 pages) to uphold the Affordable Care Act’s health-insurance subsidies on Thursday. He spent three times as many in 2012, when he authored the majority ruling in National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius, upholding the law’s individual mandate. But Supreme Court rulings have also become more accessible, when their authors want th...
University of Virginia neuroscientist Jeffrey T. Barth, 66, who retired last week, will be remembered for his pioneering research in the long-term effects of mild head injuries. His work kicked off a wave of studies on the topic that eventually brought about major cultural changes in the NFL, which for years resisted the warnings issued by Barth and other neuroscientists — that repeated minor head injuries, often undetectable, leave lasting damage.