Stop press. The Donald has entered the presidential race. Joy to the world, the Trump is come, let America receive her King, let every heart prepare him room, let every comic laugh and sing. It is the largest field of aspirants in recent memory. But at this stage, as Larry Sabato, professor of politics at the University of Virginia, says, “The campaign is largely just performance art for the press and the donor class.”
Maurie McInnis is the Executive Vice Provost for Academic Affairs and a Professor of Art History at the University of Virginia. Her most recent book is Slaves Waiting for Sale: Abolitionist Art and the American Slave Trade. Maurie joins Coy to discuss the back story to the tragic murders in Charleston, South Carolina and the context of a long, tragic history of white-on-black terrorism in the American South.
Rather surprisingly, Hillary Clinton made a shrewd policy announcement last week. Until recently, Clinton’s main answer to sluggish wage growth has been to cheer on labor activists calling for a higher minimum wage. Yet she has just embraced a far more attractive policy proposal that enjoys considerable bipartisan support. Drawing on legislation backed by Senators Tim Scott (R., S.C.) and Cory Booker (D., N.J.), Clinton is calling for a new tax credit that would encourage employers to create and expand apprenticeship programs. There is another reason to support the expansion of apprentic...
Thumbs up to Lynchburg native Anna Boynton, who soon will be headed to Sri Lanka on a Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship. Boynton graduated in May from the University of Virginia with degrees in both global development studies and religious studies with a focus on post-conflict research and development.
Growing up in Little Rock, Arkansas, in the 1950s, University of Virginia President Teresa A. Sullivan gained an appreciation for baseball through her father. At 10:46 CST Saturday night, not long after UVa upset Florida to clinch a spot in the College World Series finals, Sullivan got the party started with a tweet. “Wahoowah!,” she posted. “The baseball Hoos defeat Florida 5-4 @ College World Series. The Omaha Hilton will rock tonight.”
(By Allan Stam, dean of the University of Virginia Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy) The complex endgame of negotiations between the major powers and Iran underscores the limited options states have to combat nuclear proliferation, something with which U.S. policy planners are going to have to learn to live.
University of Virginia researchers have identified an important molecular process during human egg fertilization that they say could lead, in the long run, to a male contraceptive. John C. Herr, a professor of cell biology and biomedical engineering, led the study, which made the cover of the May issue of Biology of Reproduction. Researchers found that a protein found in sperm cells, called ESP1, plays a crucial role in sperm-egg fusion. Evidence uncovered by Herr’s team shows the protein stabilizes the area where the fusion occurs.
Fertility researchers at the University of Virginia say they are one step closer to creating a male contraceptive. UVA's Center for Research in Contraceptive and Reproductive Health has discovered a specific protein called ESP1 that they say plays a major role in a sperm fertilizing an egg. Researchers say they could one day find a way to block the protein's interaction and possibly prevent pregnancy.
A male contraceptive is another step closer following the discovery of the molecular events that play a critical role in sperm and egg fusion. At present there is no hormonal male contraceptive pill as there is for females. Researchers are looking to find a way to temporarily block the effects of testosterone to stop healthy sperm production – but this needs to be done without lowering testosterone levels so much it triggers side effects. However, John Herr and colleagues at the University of Virginia's Centre for Research in Contraceptive and Reproductive Health have now identified ...
New evidence and testing at the largest Anasazi site in New Mexico is now changing the narrative of how the society came together through the formation of vast trading networks – and specifically through importing exotic macaws for ritual purposes, according to the study, published in PNAS. “Sociopolitical hierarchies evolved over the course of nearly two centuries before taking the more visible forms seen in the Chaco florescence,” said Stephen Plog, professor of archaeology at the University of Virginia. “As in many parts of the world, this was a long-term proces...
The dream system for monitoring a person’s biometric data is a network of always-on sensors distributed around the body, generating all sorts of useful data ranging from vital signs to the levels of different compounds in the blood or tissues. One of the keys to such a system would be sensors that could harvest enough energy from their surroundings that they would not need batteries that would have to be recharged or replaced. Researchers at the University of Virginia (UVA) are taking a giant step in this direction by developing a tiny chip.
The first of several new capitals was installed on the north side of University of Virginia's Rotunda on Tuesday afternoon. The 6,000-pound capitals sit on top of the historical structure's columns.
Archaeologists at Monticello are digging, sifting and sorting in search of the original foundation for Thomas Jefferson's Stone Stable. Researchers need to have a clear understanding of what the building looked like in President Jefferson's time before they can begin to restore it. As part of a six-week summer course through the Monticello-University of Virginia Archaeological Field School, students are excavating five-foot units. UVA archaeologists say they're working to make the landscape of slavery more visible and understandable.
In the short term, the fight over the cost of music is not about the money. In the long term, it's absolutely about the money. Taylor Swift took a stand over the weekend against Apple's plans to offer people a three-month free trial that would yield no money for artists. Less than 24 hours later, the biggest company in the world capitulated. David Touve, a professor at the University of Virginia with a background in digital music startups, said Apple was likely offering some compensation other than per-stream royalties. One way would have been to provide advance payments.
Whether or not there’s ultimately a federal indictment, being a political staffer is inherently risky. In many cases, if a politico advances into higher office, the odds are their staffers rise in the ranks as well. But the opposite is also true. “If the officeholder loses or makes a major mistake, your career in politics could effectively be ended, too, or at least damaged,” says Kyle Kondik, managing editor of Sabato’s Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia Center for Politics.
Stop whatever you’re doing — which presumably is reading this editorial — and take a good look around you. Maybe it’s at your spouse across the breakfast table. Or that weird guy at the coffee shop. Or the other parents at the soccer game. Or — well, if it’s at the driver in the next lane with all the crazy bumper stickers, best to put down your smartphone, unless you want tomorrow’s paper to feature your obituary. In any case, now that you’ve spotted someone, here’s a test: How would you feel if the choice of the next president of the Unit...
New work on the skeletal remains of scarlet macaws found in an ancient Pueblo settlement indicates that social and political hierarchies may have emerged in the American Southwest earlier than previously thought. "In general, most researchers have argued that emergence of hierarchy, and of extensive trade networks that extended into Mexico, would coincide with what we see as other aspects of the Chaco florescence: roads being built outward from Chaco and the formation of what are called Chaco outliers that mimic the architecture seen in the cultural center," said Stephen Plog, p...
(By Eric M. Patashnik, professor of public policy and politics and director of the Center for Health Policy at the University of Virginia) What’s the best way to treat prostate cancer? What are the benefits and risks of different rehabilitation options for survivors of stroke? Unfortunately, the answer to these and similar questions often is: Nobody knows. The United States spends $3 trillion annually on health care — much of it funded by taxpayers through programs such as Medicare — yet only a limited amount of information exists about what treatments work best for...
The future has arrived. We already have 3-D bioprinters that can print tissue. Now the goal is to someday print organs. “There’s a real problem with an organ shortage for patients who need transplants,” says Shayn Peirce-Cottler, associate professor at the University of Virginia’s Department of Biomedical Engineering. The school just acquired two state-of-the-art, high-end, three dimensional bioprinters.
The traditional concept of the brain as an immune privileged site is gradually being eroded, and has been dealt a further blow by the recent demonstration of lymphatic vessels in the CNS. In a study published in Nature, Antoine Louveau, Jonathan Kipnis and their colleagues at the University of Virginia identified functional lymphatic vasculature in the meninges. In addition to providing new insights into the anatomy of the brain, the findings could have important implications for understanding the mechanisms underlying neurodegenerative and neuroinflammatory disease.