For three weeks, the District’s snow removal crews have been trucking most of D.C.’s excess snow and ice to one of the former RFK Stadium parking lots.
For three weeks, the District’s snow removal crews have been trucking most of the city’s excess snow and ice to one of the parking lots at the former RFK Stadium site.
By Friday, the 15-foot-tall snow and ice mound covered a 320,000 square-foot area, D.C. Department of Transportation spokesman German Vigil said. That’s the equivalent of five and a half football fields.
And it could be there well into May.
“To figure out how long will it actually take for some massive pile of snow or ice to melt, there’s only two numbers you need,” Jonathan Boreyko, an associate professor of mechanical engineering at Virginia Tech, told WTOP. “One number is how much total heat is going into the snow from the sun or the warm air, and then the other number is how much mass of ice do you actually have to melt.”
Based on DDOT’s numbers, he estimated the RFK pile’s mass at a massive 33 million kilograms. The sun alone, he said, would melt a snow pile of that size and density in around 200 days, assuming no changes in air temperature.
“If the air can get dramatically above freezing, it’s a much more complex analysis,” Boreyko said.
But the warming air should help get the job done in “tens of days, not hundreds,” he said.
The high end of that estimate would leave remnants of the pile at RFK until Memorial Day weekend.
Boreyko has published two papers on melting snow and ice, but he spends more time on other research.
“Something my group is doing that I’m very excited about, for these winter seasons, is we’re trying to use electric fields to rip ice and frost off of surfaces like cars and airplanes electrically,” Boreyko said.
They call it electrostatic de-icing: “It’s something we’re trying to make more effective, and we’re excited about its prospects long term,” he said.
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U.S. sports books, KenPom and ESPN all listed N.C. State as a heavy favorite over Virginia Tech, expecting the Wolfpack to win by 10 points.
N.C. State head coach Will Wade said earlier this week his team is on a much better trajectory and playing better than it was earlier in the ACC schedule. Wade also said the Hokies are a better team than their record indicates, pointing to its buzzer beater losses at Wake Forest and SMU, and its triple-overtime win at Virginia.
As expected, the Wolfpack was the better team on Saturday, finally pulling away to beat Virginia Tech, 83-72, at Lenovo Center. N.C. State has won six straight games. That is the longest win streak by N.C. State since the 1973-74 season.
The Wolfpack (18-6, 9-2 ACC) put together several stretches of great play, and though N.C. State struggled with defensive containment in the second half, it answered every Hokies surge.
“They played with desperation. They played how you would want to play in the situation that they’re in,” Wade said on Saturday. Our guys answered those runs and answered those changes in momentum very well. I thought we did a good job staying connected, staying together.”
With 12 minutes remaining, N.C. State gave up consecutive open 3-pointers to Jaden Schutt, the Hokies’ most efficient 3-point shooter (41%). That cut the Wolfpack lead to three points after it had climbed back to a 13-point advantage three minutes earlier.
Virginia Tech head coach Mike Young said, emphasizing he wasn’t criticizing Wade’s team, that the Wolfpack “is going to play the way they play.”
“They will give you the opportunity to get back,” Young said. “They’ll also punch you again if you don’t take advantage of those opportunities.”
Tre Holloman, Quadir Copeland and Paul McNeil provided the majority of scoring down the stretch to push their squad past the visitors, scoring 20 of the Wolfpack’s 22 points in the final 10 minutes.
McNeil and Copeland finished with 21 points each. Copeland, who surpassed 1,000 career points, also added 10 assists and five steals. The senior has recorded at least nine assists in five straight games. Holloman scored 16 points with three 3s
Darrion Williams was held to four points on 1-of-9 shooting, while adding five rebounds, one assist, one block and one steal.
N.C. State’s Quadir Copeland smiles as he leaves the court following the Wolfpack’s 82-73 win over Virginia Tech on Saturday, Feb. 7, 2026 at Lenovo Center in Raleigh, N.C. Kaitlin McKeown The News & Observer
Though the Wolfpack led by as many as 13 points in the first half, the Hokies continued to respond the entire game. Wade, on his radio show Thursday, said his team would need persistence.
“This is an important game. They’re very well coached,” Wade said of Virginia Tech. “There’s not many coaches in the country I respect more than Mike Young. He was at Wofford when I was at Chattanooga. … “They’re on the bubble, so we’re gonna get their absolute best shot. And it’s on us to make sure that we’re, you know, we’re playing well and doing what we need to do to play our best.”
The Wolfpack and Hokies (16-8, 5-6) were tied at 6-6 four minutes into the game before N.C. State went on a 14-1 run over the course of 3 1/2 minutes. The run gave the Wolfpack at 13-point lead, capped off by Holloman’s 3 on the wing.
The Wolfpack, however, got seemingly too comfortable with its advantage. N.C. State’s offense went 2 of 9 in the following 7 1/2 minutes of the first half, often shooting quick 3s with limited passing or drives inside. Thankfully for the Wolfpack’s winning streak, it took an 11-0 run to regain a double-digit lead. N.C. State went to the locker room with a 36-24 advantage, shooting just over 48% from the field.
N.C. State’s Tre Holloman drives past Virginia Tech’s Neoklis Avdalas during the first half of the Wolfpack’s game on Saturday, Feb. 7, 2026 at Lenovo Center in Raleigh, N.C. Kaitlin McKeown The News & Observer
Virginia Tech’s 24 first-half points were the second-fewest allowed by the Wolfpack this season — second only to the 19 points given up to Liberty in December — and fewest against a Power Four opponent this year.
Amani Hansberry led the Hokies with 19 points, scoring 16 in the second half. He has surpassed the 10-point mark five times in the last six games.
Tobi Lawal added 17 points and 15 rebounds for the Hokies.
Neoklis Avdalas added 14 points on 5-of-6 shooting, reaching double figures for the first time in three games. He averaged 5.3 points across the previous three outings, including two 1-of-8 performances against Louisville and Duke.
Early interior defense gives Pack lead
N.C. State’s early defense locked down the paint early, limiting Virginia Tech’s ability to take short-range shots.
The Wolfpack held the Hokies scoreless from the lane in the first nine minutes of play, while the offense had success driving inside and took a 14-0 lead in the paint. Virginia Tech did not make its first layup until 11 minutes had elapsed.
N.C. State went to the locker room with a 20-8 scoring advantage in the lane.
N.C. State’s Matt Able drives between Virginia Tech’s Jailen Bedford and Ben Hammond during the second half of the Wolfpack’s 82-73 win on Saturday, Feb. 7, 2026 at Lenovo Center in Raleigh, N.C. Kaitlin McKeown The News & Observer
N.C. State was far less successful in the second half and ended the game with a 38-36 scoring advantage in the lane. This remains an issue for the team, which is inconsistent with its interior defense.
The Wolfpack’s first-half strength, however, allowed N.C. State to take a lead and play from ahead for more than 37 minutes.
N.C. State averages 33 points in the paint per game on the season and 30.3 in ACC play.
Defense contains Hokies’ leaders in first half
Hansberry and Ben Hammond entered the game as two of the Hokies’ leading scorers. Hammond averaged 12.8 points per game, and Hansberry contributed 15 points per game this season.
On Saturday, the duo combined for three first-half points on 1-of-16 (6.3%) shooting from the field. They were 0 for 7 from 3-point range in the first 20 minutes.
“Shout out Jig,” Copeland said, referring to Holloman by his nickname. “He set the tone on why their guards were what they were in the first half. He set the tone, switching on and off, switching from a 6-9 guard to a 5-9, 5-11 guard. He’s gonna be humble with his answer, but I’m gonna let y’all guys know.”
Holloman said he takes pride in defense but felt like he’s been slacking.
“I want to set that spark for our team, and it worked,” Holloman said.
Hansberry didn’t go down quietly, despite his slow start. He finished with 19 points, but went 0 for 5 on 3-pointers.
Hansberry was coming off a 20-point performance in the Hokies’ loss to Duke. Hammond, meanwhile, had scored double figures in the previous six games and averaged 16.6 points per game during that stretch.
Hammond went 0 for 9 from the field and played 14 minutes in the second half on Saturday.
“We were face guarding him in the full court, trying to make it difficult for him to get the ball,” Wade said. “Tre did that. Tre played great. Played 36, 37 minutes, and hounded Hammond up and down the court.
“I think by the time he got the ball, he was a little bit tired, a little bit fatigued. He took some tough mid-range shots, fadeaway shots, settled for some 3s.”
Uncharacteristic turnovers
Paul McNeil led all players in scoring, but he struggled at times with his ball handling. The sophomore committed three turnovers, half of what he’d committed the entire season.
McNeil entered the game with six turnovers on the season, ranking No. 2 in the nation with a 2.9% turnover rate. Part of that was his lack of dribbling, primarily being a catch-and-shoot player.
“I always tell him, ‘Shoot it before you turn it over, fire that thing up at the basket,’” Wade said this week. “If you shoot it, we’ve got a chance for it to go in. We’ve got a chance to get fouled, and we’ve got a chance to get an offensive rebound. If you turn it over, we’ve got none of those chances.”
Wade was proven correct on a handful of possessions when McNeil made the basket and got fouled on a 3-point attempt. McNeil made up for the miscues, but he won’t want a repeat of those turnovers.
As a team, the Wolfpack finished with 11 turnovers, slightly over its average of 8.8 turnovers in ACC play.
This story was originally published February 7, 2026 at 2:31 PM.
Ariana Wyatt, of Virginia Tech, explains how traditional hymns and carols influence modern holiday hits. Themes of longing, family, and tradition remain central, even as commercial tunes and romantic holiday songs shape today’s playlists.
Some people are fans of Christmas music, but not when it shows up particularly early in the holiday season.
Ariana Wyatt, a professor of voice and associate dean for outreach and engagement for the College for Architecture, Arts and Design at Virginia Tech, loves Christmas music, but she’s not a fan of the increasingly early arrival of the sounds of the season, like the day after Halloween.
Wyatt said that’s a little too soon for her, but,“That seems to be where we’re at as a culture.”
The themes of the earliest Christmas music — the hymns and carols that celebrate the birth of Christ — continue to influence modern holiday music, Wyatt said.
“When it starts to get cold, we’re seeking comfort, light, joy, togetherness. And those things are all found in Christmas music,” she said. “I think there’s a real power in tradition.”
Many of the popular Christmas songs that end up in heavy rotation in grocery stores and in people’s personal playlists are more than 80 years old.
A common theme is one of longing, Wyatt said. Over and over, songs of the time mention home, family and tradition.
“And that did start with ‘White Christmas,’ which was broadcast for the first time on Christmas Day 1941, just a couple weeks after Pearl Harbor,” Wyatt said.
“Songs of longing have been around since the beginning of time, but it was definitely attached to World War II,” said Wyatt, who added that songs of the period featured “nostalgia for Christmases past and that hope for Christmas present and future.”
Wyatt said it was in the 1950s when a “whole new genre” of Christmas music began to feature shopping, Santa and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, a character originally created as part of a store promotion dating back to 1939.
“We have songs that are really about the green side of Christmas: the gift-giving, the Santa Claus, the commercial part,” Wyatt said.
Songs from both eras have been covered again and again by everyone from U-2 to Bruce Springsteen, but one original piece of music has come to dominate the season: Mariah Carey’s 1994 “All I Want for Christmas Is You.”
Carey has often been referred to as the “Queen of Christmas,” and Wyatt said there’s no denying the popularity of the tune.
“It is the No. 1 Christmas hit of the 21st century, and it wasn’t even released in the 21st century. It was released in the 20th century,” Wyatt said.
Yet another genre of Christmas music that can be heard during the season, Wyatt said, is the holiday tune mixed with romance.
Carey used that in other songs, such as “I Miss You Most at Christmastime.” Those songs evoke the holiday, with references to snow, sitting by the fireplace, hearing distant carolers and more.
“It’s like visiting an old friend,” she said, referencing the love for traditions that surround the Christmas season.
When it comes to her personal favorites, she puts “O Holy Night” at the top of her list.
“It’s the one that makes me weak in the knees when it’s sung powerfully by a beautiful voice, there’s nothing better than that,” Wyatt said.
She also loves “White Christmas.”
“I love those old tunes from the 40s and 50s that we still kind of love today,” she said.
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Oregon returned to the top five of The Associated Press Top 25 college football poll Sunday, five Atlantic Coast Conference teams were ranked for the second time this season and Georgia Tech took the biggest fall after its second loss in three games.
Ohio State, Indiana and Texas A&M remained the top three teams for a sixth straight week, and Georgia was No. 4 for the second week in a row.
Oregon jumped over idle Mississippi to No. 5, its highest ranking since it was No. 3 in the Oct. 5 poll. The Ducks strengthened their College Football Playoff resume with a 15-point victory over then-No. 16 Southern California, extending their winning streak to five games.
Mississippi was followed by Texas Tech, Oklahoma, Notre Dame and Alabama.
Ohio State is No. 1 for a 13th straight week going into its game at No. 15 Michigan. The Buckeyes received 58 first-place votes and were 53 points ahead of Indiana, which was listed first on seven voters’ ballots. Texas A&M got the remaining first-place vote.
Pittsburgh, which has three losses, was one spot behind the two-loss Yellow Jackets. No. 25 SMU re-entered the poll for the first time since Sept. 2.
No. 20 James Madison of the Sun Belt Conference remained the highest-ranked Group of Five team in the AP poll. The Dukes, up one spot from a week ago, came from behind to beat Washington State 24-20.
No. 21 North Texas of the American Conference was one spot ahead of Tulane. The Green Wave were the only Group of Five team in the CFP selection committee’s rankings last week, at No. 24.
In and out
— No. 24 Pittsburgh bounced back from its 22-point home loss to Notre Dame and returned after a one-week absence.
— No. 25 SMU beat Louisville by 32 points for its third straight win and can return to the ACC championship game with a win at California.
Missouri (No. 23) and Houston (No. 25) dropped out.
Poll points
— Five teams from the state of Texas are ranked for a second straight week. The Lone Star State hadn’t had five teams in back-to-back polls since 2016.
— The ACC, in addition to this week, had five teams in the poll on Nov. 9. That makes this the fourth straight year the ACC has had five teams ranked in two or more polls.
Big Ten (5): Nos. 1 Ohio State, 2 Indiana, 5 Oregon, 15 Michigan, 19 USC.
Big 12 (3): Nos. 7 Texas Tech, 11 BYU, 14 Utah.
American (2): Nos. 21 North Texas, 22 Tulane.
Independent (1): No. 9 Notre Dame.
Sun Belt (1): No. 20 James Madison.
Ranked vs. ranked
No. 1 Ohio State (11-0, 8-0 Big Ten, No. 1 CFP) at No. 15 Michigan (9-2, 7-1, No. 18), Saturday: Buckeyes have lost four straight to Michigan. They haven’t dropped five in a row to their archrival since they lost six straight from 1922-27.
No. 3 Texas A&M (11-0, 7-0 SEC, No. 3 CFP) at No. 16 Texas (8-3, 5-2, No. 17), Friday: Aggies lock up spot in SEC title game with a win; they would need lots of help to get to Atlanta if they lose. Arch Manning’s six-touchdown day against Arkansas gives the Longhorns mojo for this rivalry game.
No. 4 Georgia (10-1, No. 4 CFP) at No. 23 Georgia Tech (9-2, No. 16), Friday: Bulldogs have won seven straight in the series and haven’t lost to Yellow Jackets in Atlanta since 1999.
No. 12 Vanderbilt (9-2, 5-2 SEC, No. 14 CFP) at No. 18 Tennessee (8-3, 4-3, No. 20), Saturday: Commodores are going for a 10th win for first time in program history. They’re 12-41-2 all-time in Knoxville, and only four of those wins have come in the last 50 years.
No. 13 Miami (9-2, 5-2, No. 13 CFP) at No. 24 Pittsburgh (8-3, 6-1), Saturday: Both teams still have narrow paths to the ACC title game. Miami clinging to playoff hopes. Pitt trying to land best possible bowl.
A professor who helped conduct a new study showing harms from ultra-processed foods explains what they are and why we should avoid them.
Consuming ultra-processed foods can cause harm to major organs, in addition to a host of other health problems, a new study published Tuesday in the medical journal the Lancet revealed.
Another report released Thursday from researchers at Virginia Tech shows that young adults are more vulnerable to indulging in ultra-processed foods, according to Brenda Davy, a professor in the school’s Department of Human Nutrition, Foods and Exercise, who helped conduct the study.
Davy told WTOP that people need to pay attention to what they’re buying to avoid ultra-processed food, which are dangerous to our health.
“An ultra-processed food is most easily recognized by having ingredients that would not be used in home cooking,” Davy said.
Her study tested young adults who were put on diets with ultra-processed foods. After two weeks, the adults aged 18 to 21 ate more calories using a diet that was high in ultra-processed food even though they weren’t hungry. But this wasn’t true for adults in the 22-25 age group, Davy said.
The study’s results suggest that adolescents may be more vulnerable to ultra-processed foods, which can be addictive.
Some examples of ultra-processed foods include “things like Sunny Delight, rather than 100% fresh orange juice,” she said. “A Pop-Tart, which would be an ultra-processed food, compared to a homemade banana nut muffin.”
“When you’re shopping at the grocery store, if you pick up an item and look at the ingredient list, if you see things like ‘fat, flour, oil, salt, sugar,’ those are things that are typically used in home cooking,” she said. “Those would not be considered ultra-processed ingredients.”
“On the other hand, if you saw very long-sounding chemical names that you do not recognize, that’s one tip off of an item considered an ultra-processed food,” she added.
She said the research released this week shows that these ingredients could be more dangerous than you think.
“Ultra-processed foods are linked to increased risks of obesity and weight gain and a whole host of chronic diseases like Type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular diseases,” Davy said.
She said in order to avoid ultra-processed foods, people should “prepare as many of their meals as possible at home.”
“That might help folks reduce their risk of some of these chronic diseases related to their diet,” she said.
Davy said that there are some advantages to food processing by manufacturers.
“One of the biggest advantages for using processed foods is that they do have a longer shelf life,” she said. “That is an important benefit of ultra-processed foods.”
But she said that one of the big drawbacks is how addictive they can be.
“They may drive us to overeat them,” she said.
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Dogs can be trained to detect oncoming seizures, migraines and even identify potential cancer — researchers at Virginia Tech are developing a device that can help humans monitor their health just by breathing.
A Personalized Integrated Mobile Exhalation Decoder patent from Massoud Agah, a professor at Virginia Tech.(Courtesy Virginia Tech)
A Personalized Integrated Mobile Exhalation Decoder patent from Massoud Agah, a professor at Virginia Tech.(Courtesy Virginia Tech)
Dogs can be trained to detect oncoming seizures, migraines and even identify potential cancer — researchers at Virginia Tech are developing a device that can help humans monitor their health just by breathing.
Dogs have 60 times the number of olfactory receptor neurons in their nose as humans. Professor Masoud Agah is working to give everyone the same sniffing power with a portable device; his newest conceptual patent is for the Personalized Integrated Mobile Exhalation Decoder, or PIMED.
Agah is working on a “sniffer on a chip,” which analyzes volatile organic compounds in a person’s breath and a microelectromechanical sample collector. Using an absorbing agent, it picks up the components for identification by the analyzer.
“For example, if you have diabetes, the level of acetone goes up in your breath,” Agah said. In a home device, or small checkup station similar to public blood pressure cuffs in pharmacies, a person could receive their own breath signature.
“And that smell print or breath print can be used as an identification, to show whether your are prone or showing signs of cancer, or not,” he said.
Agah said the patented decoder could be integrated in a number of devices.
“The whole art is actually what’s happening behind it, and how the information is being translated and provided to the doctors, or to lab technicians, or to the patient,” Agah said.
In the same way that a person can monitor their blood pressure at home, Agah said the PIMED could help a person and their doctor try to stay ahead of diseases before they become visible on a scan or other lab test.
“You can actually see the progression of the changes that are happening in your own signature,” Agah said.
The technology could also be used to help rule out diseases. For instance, an inexpensive breath test “can give some sort of fast analysis and fast screening,” which could help rule out diseases that currently require more expensive and time consuming office or laboratory visits.
Monitoring a person’s breath signature over time could show if cancer is spreading, or how well a cancer treatment is working.
“You have a known parameter — the disease,” Agah said. While monitoring over time, “Now let’s see how much closer your breath print gets to the normal version of yourself. That shows the efficacy of the treatment, without visiting the lab, or getting blood, or anything like that.”
It will take a while before you’d be able to have a disease-sniffing device at home. Agah, and his longtime collaborator John Michalek, are now working to bring the patented device to real-world prototypes.
While a Breathalyzer can only detect blood alcohol content, Agah and Michalek’s work, including PIMED, has focused on miniaturizing analytical technology, through gas chromatography.
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A new lab at Bucknell Elementary School is giving Fairfax County, Virginia, students hands-on experience in engineering and coding.
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Virginia Tech.-backed lab inspires Fairfax Co. elementary school students to build the future
A new lab, which opened at Bucknell Elementary School in Alexandria, Virginia, is giving Fairfax County elementary school students a shot at engineering and computer programming.
And the results are as imaginative as they are innovative.
The Thinkabit Lab designs and builds prototypes for environmentally friendly inhalers, pet-washing machines, glasses with digital dashboards that monitor activity and soccer ball shooting robots. And the engineers behind this broad range of contraptions haven’t yet graduated the 5th grade.
When students arrive at the Virginia Tech-partnered lab, they often show a mix of excitement and apprehension. But about an hour later, many of them will go from little to no programming experience to building a device of their own.
“We do a lot of hands-on skills, where they’re actually building circuits that they design, and then they program them, and then we have them build automated devices,” Jim Egenrieder, director of Virginia Tech’s D.C.-area K-20 Technical Education and Workforce Development programs, told WTOP.
By the end of the class, students build or improve robotic devices that perform a task of their choosing. What they choose to build, is up to them.
Clemente Smothers, a student at Keene Mill Elementary School in West Springfield was visiting the lab on a recent day. Smothers told WTOP he decided to build a hybrid machine that could shoot a baseball or soccer ball, so players can learn to field the balls.
Another student, Betty Abraham, said her idea came from a recent article she read that stated “inhalers cause pollution.”
“We want to create an inhaler that doesn’t cause as much pollution,” Abraham told her teacher.
Abraham then described her prototype, which she planned to build with cardboard, small electric motors and LEDs.
“This is a micro dose of project-based learning where they get to decide what they want to create, and we facilitate it,” Egenrieder said. “We try to never say ‘no’ unless safety is involved, and that’s freedom that students don’t often have in their daily lives.”
Students have about 35 minutes to complete their inventions.
“If you are not done, and most of them see that as failure, I make sure that I tell them it’s part of the engineering and design process,” said teacher Jessica Ittayem, a STEM specialist at Bucknell Elementary. “If you didn’t have enough time communicate to us, what if you had three more days? How would this look? How would it function?”
She said parents often report trips to Home Depot, so their children can finish their prototypes at home.
Before diving into hands-on learning, students receive a brief lecture on programming and engineering basics and are asked to reflect on their values and interests.
Their first task: program a miniature traffic light using green, yellow and red LEDs, a breadboard, resistors and a computer. Once they grasp the basics, they can control how quickly the lights change — sometimes so fast that all three appear lit to the human eye, though a phone camera reveals they’re blinking.
“We had some problems at first,” said student Leanna Mollik. “It’s really fun, and it can determine your career in the future.”
She told WTOP this is one of her favorite classes.
After the stoplight, students learn to program a servo and motor before starting their own projects.
“They leave saying, ‘That was more fun than I thought it would be. This is the best field trip we’ve ever had. I can see myself doing this,’” Egenrieder said. “And they hopefully go home and have dinner table conversations about these new ideas.”
A lab at Bucknell Elementary School in Alexandria is giving elementary school students a shot at engineering and computer programming.
(WTOP/Luke Lukert)
WTOP/Luke Lukert
Jim Egenrieder is the director of Virginia Tech’s D.C.-area K-20 Technical Education and Workforce Development programs.
(Courtesy Virginia Tech/Craig Newcomb)
Courtesy Virginia Tech/Craig Newcomb
The Thinkabit Lab designs and builds prototypes for environmentally friendly inhalers, pet-washing machines, glasses with digital dashboards that monitor activity and soccer ball shooting robots.
(WTOP/Luke Lukert)
WTOP/Luke Lukert
He said these children, who will likely be working into the 2080s, are “going to need skills that survive the integration of artificial intelligence. And the dispositions to adapt to the many, many changes that are happening more rapidly than any other technology integration we’ve seen.”
All students at Bucknell Elementary go through the lab for an hour at least once a week, students visiting the lab from other schools get four hour windows on Tuesday and Thursday to visit the lab.
All Bucknell Elementary students visit the lab for an hour, at least once a week. Students from other schools get 4-hour windows on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
Bucknell Principal Rashida Green said the most important part of the experience is the spark students feel while working on their projects.
“I think it’s when the light bulb goes off — ‘Oh my gosh, look what we were just able to code,’” she said.
Green told WTOP her own college-aged daughters went through the program at a different school.
“I just remember as a parent coming home and having conversations with them,” she said. “They were so excited about the experience. And so, you know, it definitely makes an impact on them.”
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As early voting winds down, the number of early ballots cast this year is at a record high for a nonpresidential election in Virginia, according to the Virginia Public Access Project.
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How will Va. races be affected by record early voting for nonpresidential election?
As early voting winds down, the number of early ballots cast this year is at a record high for a nonpresidential election in Virginia, according to the Virginia Public Access Project.
The general election is set for Tuesday and the last day to vote early is Saturday.
The election will determine Virginia’s next governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, as well as all 100 seats in the Commonwealth’s House of Delegates.
WTOP asked Karen Hult, a professor of political science at Virginia Tech, why so many people voted early in this election — and how it might affect the results.
“People tend to vote early, just to get it out of the way, so they’re not stuck in traffic on Election Day, or have difficulty getting to polls,” Hult said. “They think, ‘I know who I’m going to vote for, so I’ll go cast that ballot early to show my enthusiasm, and check it off my to-do list.’”
“What’s different about this election is that Republican leaders within the state of Virginia have said, in fact, it’s fine to early vote,” unlike in previous elections, she said. “To the extent that we can find out who’s voting, most of the people that are voting in-person early voting are Republicans.”
Hult believes Republicans have been “suggesting early voting, in part to help mobilization of Republicans, and getting people excited early and getting them out to vote, as well as allowing the ground game to work effectively.”
Depending upon the media market in which one lives, “There’s a barrage of ongoing campaign ads and texts and banners on emails,” Hult said.
“Some of us are being told (by campaigners), ‘If you cast a ballot, then we will no longer contact you’ — and for many people, that itself is a bit of an incentive,” she added.
All votes count the same
Regardless of whether they cast their ballots early, or on Election Day, they all count the same.
“The people at the polls on Election Day know how many ballots have been cast in their precinct, and so those people are in the system as not being able to vote,” Hult said. “There is no way people can double-vote.”
What’s not clear is when the results of the early voting will be announced.
“That typically comes toward the end of election night, and into the next day,” Hult said.
“It may well be that some of the early votes, depending on the area, some of those will be tallied ahead of time,” she added. “Others will not be released to the public until well into the ballot-counting process.
VPAP provides an updated map of early ballots cast by House of Delegates’ districts, and compares the turnout to each district’s partisan lean.
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Raking leaves is tedious and a chore. So don’t do it. In fact, that’s the lawn care advice one regional expert from Virginia Tech has.
One regional expert says that tedious chore of raking leaves can be left until the end of fall.
“It’s actually kind of disgusting how easy this can be,” said Mike Goatley, an extension turf grass specialist and professor in the Virginia Tech School of Plant and Environmental Sciences.
Now bear in mind, if your community asks you to rake leaves to the curb so a machine can come by, suck them up, and eventually turn them into mulch or compost, this advice might not apply. But if you’re raking and bagging just so all those leaves end up in a landfill somewhere, then put the rake down and get out your lawnmower instead.
“When we return those leaves by chopping them up, we basically are giving something that’s going to be more readily broken down in the soil by the microbes that live there,” Goatley said. “They’re going to release that organic matter.”
It’s especially healthy for your lawn.
“One of the things that we constantly tell people is we’re trying to build up some level of organic matter in the soil,” he added. “By recycling our leaves, that is going to be a very easy way of building up that soil carbon.”
On the flip side, if you have your yard covered with leaves, it’s blocking the sun from hitting your grass, which stifles photosynthesis. If it rains, the moisture levels underneath can also lead to more diseased grass too. Mowing those leaves into the ground takes care of all of that.
“It makes for a much happier microbial population by basically recycling and restoring this leaf litter into the soil,” Goatley said.
If you have pine needles falling on your lawn, mowing those won’t have the same benefits.
“Pine straw is highly resistant to degradation, and it slowly but surely starts to accumulate to levels that you really don’t want it to have in the soil,” he said. “Basically, it becomes almost its own thatch layer, plus it also tends to have an acidifying effect on the soil that’ll ultimately have to be managed with a lime application to correct pH.”
You’ll want to rake up the pine needles instead, and you can use it as mulch in your gardens. Goatley also suggests dropping some fertilizer on your lawn too.
“A little fertilizer in the fall is going to go a long ways toward having the best looking lawn next spring,” he said. “You’ll get the return on the rewards next year, when next year’s grass season begins.”
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Most university syllabuses lay out exactly when and where a topic will be covered — not so for the Hokie Storm Chase class at Virginia Tech. Students in the advanced meteorology field course, in the Department of Geography, climbs into three specially outfitted vans, and take the mobile classrooms on the road as severe storms develop.
Most university syllabuses lay out exactly when and where a topic will be covered — not so for the Hokie Storm Chase class at Virginia Tech.
Students in the advanced meteorology field course, in the Department of Geography, climb into three specially outfitted vans, and take the mobile classrooms on the road as severe storms develop.
Students at Virginia Tech chase storms in a mobile classroom. (Courtesy Charles Moody for Virginia Tech)
“Every year when we’re leaving Blacksburg, we have no idea where we’re going to be,” said Aaron Swiggett, of the class of 2018, who was a trip leader for the seventh time this year. “Maybe the Northern Plains or the Central Plains, or maybe the foothills of the Rockies.”
Each of the six has a job as they try to position themselves to safely observe the extreme weather.
Swiggett, with his experience, is usually a driver. A navigator is in the front passenger seat.
In the third row, students act as spotters, describing what they’re seeing.
“The main area that we’re really relying on for information is that second row. We have an computer on a swivel station, with internet connectivity,” Swiggett said. “The student’s there in ‘the hot seat.’”
The group uses models posted by the National Weather Service’s Storm Prediction Center, along with satellite imagery and meteorological data streamed to the internet from ground stations. As the day progresses, meteorologists in the center will issue mesoscale discussions — or MD — as storms develop.
“Where the hot seat really comes into play is on those chase days, because the things we are chasing evolve rapidly, very quickly,” Swiggett said. “We need to be positioned correctly, and always have a safety route — that’s something we really rely on from the hot seat.”
This year, students saw a tornado in Minnesota.
“We probably got a quarter mile or less away from the storm, and we had it pass right in front of us,” Swiggett said. “Students were able to experience what it’s like to be that close to a tornadic storm.”
Swiggett said his experience with Hokie Storm Chase helped him land a job with the National Weather Service.
“Not a lot of students have that on their resume, so it usually garners some interest from employers,” Swiggett said. “It’s a great way to get in the door and have something that’s kind of sparkly on the resume.”
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Those in the market for a new bike helmet have a handy new resource they can refer to in order to pick the safest option, and it’s thanks to the work of a lab based in Virginia.
Those in the market for a new bike helmet have a handy new resource they can refer to in order to pick the safest option, and it’s thanks to the work of a lab based in Virginia.
“We spent a lot of time trying to figure out how we can get these data in the hands of consumers so that they can make informed decisions,” said Steve Rosen, professor of biomedical engineering mechanics at Virginia Tech and director of the Helmet Lab.
“A helmet is a safety product, and it should be held accountable for how safe it is,” he added.
Rosen said the lab has come up with a ranking system that’s now in many sporting goods stores. A five star helmet is the best. Many manufacturers of helmets now have Virginia Tech’s rating on their tags.
“As people are browsing the helmets in the store, you can see what the rating of that helmet is, and it’s really allowed us to expand our reach and educate people on the protective performance of these helmets,” he said.
Rosen said helmet safety has come a long way.
“The best helmet, way back in 2011 when we first released, would be the worst helmet today. So there’s really good improvement in head protection that’s available to people in the field,” he said.
Thanks to the helmet safety rating system developed by the Helmet Lab, consumers now have access to critical data that can guide their purchasing decisions.
“It’s going to help people looking to buy a helmet have an idea of how it’s going to perform because that type of information is not typically available,” he added.
He said choosing the right helmet could be the difference between a minor injury and a life-threatening one.
“Sometimes, those differences could be over 50% in risk reduction,” he said.
See how Virginia Tech, Virginia and James Madison are leveraging the transfer portal to reshape their rosters and boost competitiveness for the upcoming 2025 college football season.
Virginia Tech coach Brent Pry heads onto the field before the team’s NCAA college football game against Syracuse on Thursday, Oct. 26, 2023, in Blacksburg, Va. (AP Photo/Robert Simmons)(AP/Robert Simmons)
Virginia Tech coach Brent Pry heads onto the field before the team’s NCAA college football game against Syracuse on Thursday, Oct. 26, 2023, in Blacksburg, Va. (AP Photo/Robert Simmons)(AP/Robert Simmons)
In college football, success hinges on a simple formula: refresh, retain and reload. Since the start of this decade, the transfer portal has become a constant churn, and both quality and quantity are essential to staying competitive — regardless of your conference affiliation.
Virginia Tech, coming off a 6-7 season and 4-4 in the ACC, brought in 30 transfers this past offseason, and it’s more than just finding good players to elevate your team’s talent.
“It would not be fair to anybody on this team to bring a guy in that doesn’t fit our culture, isn’t going to get along, isn’t going to appreciate Virginia Tech,” coach Brent Pry told WTOP earlier this month. “We do a ton of background, we make a ton of phone calls, we do a lot of research to make sure that these guys fit us that way.”
While there are plenty of new parts that include wide receivers Cameron Seldon (Tennessee) and Donavon Greene (Wake Forest) plus running backs Terion Stewart (Bowling Green) and Braydon Bennett (Coastal Carolina), there is stability at quarterback with senior Kyron Drones returning for his third season as a starter.
“He had a lot of suitors, and could have gone places for more money,” Pry said. “But he wanted to be at Tech and be with the people here. The players, the staff. And the promise of a quarterback coach and a play-caller that would be more conducive to his skill set.”
Former Tulsa head coach Philip Montgomery steps in as offensive coordinator, while Sam Siefkes takes over as defensive coordinator after spending the last four seasons on NFL staffs. The Hokies return quite a bit of talent from a unit that ranked third in the ACC in scoring defense, but there will be more than a few challenges for both sides of the ball this fall.
“We have to find our identity on offense earlier and make sure our playmakers are getting the football,” Pry said. “We’ve got to defend the run. We’ve got to be stingy and make people one-dimensional.”
The season begins with a bang: They face No. 13 South Carolina in Atlanta week one and host a Vanderbilt team that beat them last year the following Saturday. For starters, the success of this team will hinge on how they finish. The Hokies went 0-5 in games decided by seven points or fewer last fall.
“We have to be more mentally and physically tough, we’ve got to finish games better. As coaches and players,” Pry said. “That’s been a big emphasis this offseason.”
Virginia (5-7, 3-5 ACC) begins their slate a little bit softer, hosting Coastal Carolina and William & Mary over the first three weekends. Head coach Tony Elliott brought in 31 transfers this year, including quarterback Chandler Morris who, while at North Texas last year, led the AAC in passing yards and touchdown passes.
“Chandler’s getting comfortable with the guys, and kind of pushing him to just do the little things from a leadership standpoint because fundamentally he’s really sound, he has a good command,” Elliott said. “Now it’s kind of like I told him, ‘You drive the ship, push the guys, the tempo, the little things, the gamesmanship.’”
Morris will throw to a blend of targets that are coming to the Cavaliers from UConn (Cameron Ross), Kent State (Trell Harris) and FAU (Jahmal Edrine). In addition to quality, quantity was sought from the transfer portal and recruiting class.
“As much as we’re talking about building competitive stamina, the body is going to slow down after about 100 snaps, so I think depth will help us be a little bit fresher,” Elliott said. “And you notice the teams that are really good in the fourth quarter, a lot of times it’s because they’ve got a lot of depth, and they can play guys. They’re the fresher team in the fourth quarter, and they can lean on people.”
While the schedule doesn’t include a team in the Preseason Top 25, Florida State and North Carolina could easily be ranked by the time UVA plays those schools. And don’t forget the season finale against a Virginia Tech team that the Cavaliers have beaten once since they became ACC foes.
James Madison (9-4, 4-4 Sun Belt) brought in 19 transfers this offseason after being purged last year by former coach Curt Cignetti (13 players went from JMU to Indiana). The Dukes, despite their talent drain, actually had an outside shot at a Sun Belt Conference title in mid-November; but losses in their last two regular season games delivered a bitter pill head coach Bob Chesney and company had to swallow in the offseason.
Picked to win the East, JMU boasts the one-two punch of quarterback Alonza Barnett III (2,598 yards and 26 touchdowns passing last fall) and running back George Pettaway (995 yards and 15 touchdowns rushing plus 24 receptions).
The defense returns six starters, including free safety Jacob Thomas (72 tackles, half of a sack, and three interceptions). But no longer on the roster are the team’s top two pass rushers as Eric O’Neill (13 sacks) transferred to Rutgers and Khair Manns (nine sacks) went pro.
Enter transfer Notre Dame transfer and Fairfax, Virginia-native Aiden Gobaira, who shined locally at Chantilly High School before injuries kept him on the shelf in South Bend. Maine transfer Xavier Holmes posted four sacks last year for the Black Bears.
The Dukes received votes in the Preseason AP Top 25 Poll. Their early test? A trip to Louisville in week two.
And the Cardinals will be ready for JMU after the Dukes put 70 on the board last September against North Carolina.
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The adhesive, which resembles an octopus sucker and is the size of a human fingertip, gathers its strength based on its ability to apply the correct amount of force to stabilize an item.
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Octopus-inspired adhesive could improve search and rescue, aid with dexterity challenges
Using mechanisms inspired by nature, Virginia Tech researchers have created a new adhesive based on the shape of octopus suckers.
“We’re really interested in trying to grab on quickly, and release easily from wet or submerged objects,” said Virginia Tech Associate Professor Michael Bartlett. “One of the organisms that does this in nature in an extraordinary way is the octopus.”
Bartlett and his students’ findings have been published in the journal Advanced Science.
“Some of the challenging underwater objects are rocks that have curvatures and roughness. We want to be able to hold to things like sea shells, which are smaller. And we want to be able to grab onto things that are hard and soft,” said Bartlett.
The adhesive, which resembles an octopus sucker and is the size of a human fingertip, isn’t strong because it is sticky: “If you touch our octopus-inspired adhesive, it isn’t sticky, it isn’t tacky, it doesn’t feel like a regular piece of tape, but it does feel soft,” said Bartlett.
Instead, the adhesive’s strength is based on its ability to instantly apply the correct amount of force to stabilize an item, which might have several surfaces.
“If you look at the octopus sucker, it has this outer ring called the infundibulum. And this outer ring has a curvature to it, and it’s made out of very soft tissue,” said Bartlett.
The challenge, from an engineering perspective, was to build an adhesive with some of the same characteristics: “So, what we did is use a soft, rubbery material. We shaped it into a curved stalk, and then on the top of that we add a soft, rubbery membrane.”
The way researchers attach and release from objects is by controlling the pressure under the membrane, similar to inflating and deflating a balloon. To grab onto an item, the balloon would be inflated to apply pressure. Once released, the balloon would be deflated.
With a single fingertip-sized adhesive, “We can pick up rocks that you would have to hold onto with two hands,” Bartlett said.
“This could really be useful for applications such as underwater search and rescue. It can be useful in manufacturing where you have to move things around in challenging environments. And we see it as having good utility for wearable devices that might help people with disabilities,” helping someone pick up and release objects in their homes.
Bartlett said the adhesive works equally well in fresh water, salt water or polluted water or oil.
“We’ve done experiments where we’ve changed the viscosity of the fluid, so it works in fluids that move like water, and in fluids that move like maple syrup,” he said.
Bartlett’s previous research involved creation of the Octa Glove, equipped with octopus-inspired adhesives and sensors to hold onto items with a gentle bond without applying excessive force.
Virginia Tech graduate student Chanhong Lee tests the octopus-inspired sucker in the lab.
(Courtesy Alex Parrish/Virginia Tech)
Courtesy Alex Parrish/Virginia Tech
A collection of photos shows how the octopus-inspired adhesive can attach to and release underwater rocks to create a controlled assembly where the rocks have flat, curved and rough surface features.
(Courtesy Chanhong Lee and Michael Bartlett/Virginia Tech)
Courtesy Chanhong Lee and Michael Bartlett/Virginia Tech
(From left) Michael Bartlett and Chanhong Lee observe an octopus-inspired sucker as it holds a shell in a tank of water.
(Courtesy Alex Parrish/Virginia Tech)
Courtesy Alex Parrish/Virginia Tech
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The virus that causes COVID-19 has been spreading through Virginia wildlife, and Virginia Tech researchers say well-populated areas are likely where it spread from humans to animals.
The virus that causes COVID-19 has been spreading through Virginia wildlife, and Virginia Tech researchers say well-populated areas are likely where it spread from humans to animals.
While SARS-CoV-2 infections were previously identified in wildlife, primarily in white-tailed deer and feral mink, Virginia Tech researchers attempted to see whether the virus had spread to common backyard wildlife.
Researcher Carla Finkielstein, who is also director of the Virginia Tech Molecular Diagnostics Lab, said tracking the spread of the virus is important.
“The more we get vaccinated and protected, the higher the chances that the virus will try to find a new host,” Finkielstein said. “The virus is indifferent to whether its host walks on two legs or four — its primary objective is survival.”
The research team collected 798 nasal and oral swabs across Virginia from animals that were either live-trapped in the field and released, or were being treated in wildlife rehabilitation centers.
The team obtained 126 blood sample from six species. The study also identified two mice at the same site on the same day with the exact same variant, suggesting they either both got it from the same human, or one mouse infected the other.
Finkielstein said it’s not clear how the virus was transmitted from humans to wildlife.
“The most reasonable speculations are trash, food residues, wastewater,” she said. “Something that we humans infected, discarded or disposed of, and then the animals picked it up.”
When asked whether there was any indication that animals could also spread COVID to humans, she said, “We don’t have evidences of the other way around.”
The team will continue its research supported by a $5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, in part to understand how the virus’ presence in wildlife may influence the long-term maintenance of COVID in humans.
“We shouldn’t be afraid of wildlife or interacting with wildlife,” Finkielstein said. “We just need to be mindful of how we do this.”
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Police with riot shields detain a pro-Palestinian demonstrator on the ground as a National Lawyers Guild representative holds up an…
Police with riot shields detain a pro-Palestinian demonstrator on the ground as a National Lawyers Guild representative holds up an emergency contact notebook, on the University of Virginia campus, in Charlottesville, Va., where tents are set up, Saturday, May 4, 2024. (Cal Cary/The Daily Progress via AP)(AP/Cal Cary)
Police with riot shields detain a pro-Palestinian demonstrator on the ground as a National Lawyers Guild representative holds up an emergency contact notebook, on the University of Virginia campus, in Charlottesville, Va., where tents are set up, Saturday, May 4, 2024. (Cal Cary/The Daily Progress via AP)(AP/Cal Cary)
The Virginia House of Delegates has formed a select committee on maintaining campus safety and allowing students to exercise their First Amendment rights, after more than 125 arrests at four of Virginia’s college campuses.
According to Sen. Ghazala Hashmi, D-Richmond, the Senate will announce its plans to form a similar committee on Tuesday.
“I’ve heard very different scenarios from those who were on the ground and in encampments either as students or as community members that were part of those protests,” Hashmi said. “I think it’s important to get a very clear picture of what’s happened.”
Demonstrators and faculty members have criticized law enforcement and college administrators for their handling of anti-war protests, including using pepper spray to clear encampments. While the majority of the protests in Virginia have called for a cease-fire in the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas militants and have drawn attention to the deaths of thousands of Israeli and Palestinian citizens, some demonstrators have also claimed that protests have connections to antisemitic activity on campuses, WRIC reports.
Hashmi, who serves as chair of the Senate Education and Health Committee, said on Monday she wants a more precise picture of how the protests unfolded after hearing various reports about the demonstrations that have yielded 80 student arrests at the University of Mary Washington, Virginia Commonwealth University, Virginia Tech and the University of Virginia over the Israel-Hamas war.
On Saturday, several graduating students walked out at the start of Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s keynote address at VCU’s commencement ceremony after he expressed his support of law enforcement’s response to campus demonstrations at Virginia’s colleges.
Two days later, the House announced a 12-member select committee would be formed to provide potential legislative recommendations.
House Speaker Don Scott, D-Portsmouth, said in a letter that Virginia must understand the policies allowing students to exercise their protected right to free speech while maintaining campus safety.
“It is imperative that we understand the protocol followed and resources used by our local and state police when requests for assistance are made by our institutions of higher education,” Scott wrote. “We should identify areas where we can improve state policies in order to mitigate the incidents of unrest and arrest that we have witnessed this spring.”
One in four dogs will be diagnosed with cancer. Virginia Tech researchers have developed a noninvasive, rapid test using a dog’s urine, that allows for potential early detection of cancer.
For a dog owner, learning that a pet has cancer can be devastating, and is more common than many would think.
“One in four dogs will be diagnosed with cancer,” said John Robertson, research professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering and Mechanics at Virginia Tech. “By the time they’re middle-aged, 50% of dogs will die of cancer after the age of 10 years.”
Robertson is part of a research team that has developed a new noninvasive rapid test using a dog’s urine that allows for potential early detection of cancer
“Usually, when a dog gets diagnosed with cancer, it’s usually quite advanced, with visible signs — we’re trying to detect cancer before these physical symptoms appear,” said fellow researcher Ryan Senger, associate professor in the Department of Biological Systems Engineering.
“Cancer is going to change overall metabolism inside the body, and it’s going to change the way the kidneys function,” which can be observed in the urine screening process, Senger said.
The researchers sampled urine and found through the display of molecules that cancerous subjects had a unique “fingerprint” that could be used to indicate the presence of cancer.
“We would like to be able to have dogs screened earlier, before cancer develops, throughout their lifetime, perhaps a once-a-year urine specimen,” said Robertson. “That tells us what the molecular fingerprint of the urine is, so if it changes and falls into that realm of fingerprints that define cancer, we’d be able to pay more attention to figure out what’s going on with the dog.”
Robertson said there are 12 breeds of purebred dogs that have a much higher incidence of cancer. “We’re going to focus to be able to institute early, regular screening that’s going to help pick up earlier when they’re developing cancer, in the hopes that we can get better outcomes.”
Unlike medical care, which is often paid for by insurance, “veterinary care is typically subsidized by the owner,” said Robertson. “So, we intend to make our tests readily available at a price point that everyone can afford to regularly have their dog examined and screened.”
Robertson said the urine screening is currently being researched, to determine whether it could be applied to humans.
Newswise — After a long day, there’s the age-old question of do we eat out or stay in?
Over the last decade, that answer has increasingly shifted to eating out.
In that timeframe, households have increasingly spent more money on food outside of the home than what’s spent on eating at home. In that same time, the farmer’s share of the food dollar eaten outside of the home has declined while the share of food eaten at home has increased.
With a more than $550,000 grant from the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, researchers George Davis and Anubhab Gupta, in the Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics in Virginia Tech’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, are studying the effects of the changing food spending patterns on the profitability and welfare of farmers, food processors, and consumers, or welfare through the United States’ food supply chain.
“Our project aims to look at the changing profitability and welfare effects in the food supply chain while recognizing that the effects will depend on the underlying market structure and consumer socioeconomic, demographic, and environmental factors,” said George Davis, professor in the Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics and project lead.
The research team has four objectives:
Look at how the difference between retail food prices and farm prices have changed over time as spending on food at home and food away from home has changed
Determine to what extent consumers have benefitted from the change in eating food at home versus food away from home.
Consider what role the degree of competition within the food supply chain has affected profitability and welfare for the farmer, processors, and consumers as food spending patterns have changed.
Consider how alternative policies affecting food at home and food away from home spending will affect profitability and welfare throughout the food supply chain.
The project will combine well-established research areas that have not been joined before to understand important policy-relevant questions regarding price and quantity relationships, market structure, and welfare distribution throughout the associated market.
To achieve the objectives, the team will utilize public-use consumer expenditure survey microdata from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, NBER-CES Manufacturing Industry Database, and estimates from the literature.
“Our integrated framework will answer important policy and scenario questions related to socioeconomic and demographic profile of consumers, COVID-19, Ukraine war, etc. on welfare distribution throughout the food supply chain, while extending our knowledge on the four strands of literature and a unique way of integrating them,” Davis said.
Newswise — Ashley Dayer hopes to peck away at the notion that bird feeding is simply for the birds.
An associate professor in the Department of Fish and Wildlife Conservation at Virginia Tech, Dayer is the lead author of an article published in People and Nature that argues not only for the acknowledgment of the activity’s benefit to humans, but that it should play a role in public guidance and policy.
“Wildlife agencies and others making decisions on managing bird feeding need to be considering not only what the science is behind what’s going on with birds, but also the science behind what’s going on with people,” Dayer said.
The article also encourages additional research to better understand how human well-being is impacted by regularly feeding birds, and Dayer and a team of researchers both in and outside of Virginia Tech are leading the way. The group is conducting what is perhaps the first large-scale bird feeding research that also incorporates observing humans.
“People are not only reporting what they see at their bird feeders, but also their emotional responses to it,” Dayer said. “It’s pretty fun because most citizen science projects focus just on the natural or physical science, but we’re now able to look at the human piece of it.”
Funded recently as part of a more than $1.5 million National Science Foundation grant led by Dayer and Dana Hawley, professor of biological sciences, the four-year project aims to engage more than 10,000 bird feeders across the United States.
Other collaborators on the article and project include
Christy Pototsky, a graduate student studying fish and wildlife conservation at Virginia Tech
Richard Hall, associate professor at the University of Georgia
Alia Dietsch, associate professor at Ohio State University
Tina Phillips, David Bonter, Emma Greig, and Wesley Hochachka of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology
Dayer said interest in the topic began in 2021, when the researchers began to notice state agencies advising people to stop feeding birds in response to various avian disease outbreaks. After looking into it, they found that 23 states had made such recommendations without evidence it would decrease disease spread, with varying levels of pushback, and with no real method of gauging compliance, much less its impact on people.
Hawley said the lack of information about humans related to bird feeing was something she’d not previously considered, and she found it a strong motivator for this project.
“In all my years of studying how bird feeding impacts wild birds, I didn’t give much thought to how it can also impact the people that spend their time and money feeding and watching birds,” Hawley said. “I get calls every year from people who see a sick bird at their feeder and want to know how they can help prevent disease spread. All in all, this made me wonder about how policy decisions that aim to minimize disease spread can inadvertently impact the people who feed the birds.”
To help find those answers, the research team will utilize Project FeederWatch’s existing network of bird enthusiasts. Operated by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and Birds Canada, FeederWatch has tasked people with asks participants to observe and report what they see at their feeders from November to April for the past 37 years.
“FeederWatch is such a versatile data set even though, at its core, it is based on simple bird counts,” said Emma Greig, co-author and project leader for FeederWatch. “When you overlay information about behavior, disease, habitat, and climate change with those bird counts, we can get amazing insights into ecology and evolution.”
During this project, FeederWatch participants also will be asked to observe their own well-being. Dayer said about 8,000 submissions came in in from the first week of this season alone.
Such passion for birds is something Dayer understands very well. She said her mother always made sure they had bird feeders outside their family’s home, and when she became an “empty nester,” the birds became almost like children.
“She’ll go on vacation and cut the vacation short because she needs to go home and feed her birds,” Dayer said. “So I’ve lived with someone who was really into bird feeding and have seen how important it can be to them.”
But Dayer believes the positive impact of bird feeding isn’t limited to enthusiasts and is important in proving one of the most widely accessible connection to wildlife.
“People in urban areas can feed birds. People with just a deck can feed birds. People with a wide range of physical abilities can feed birds. So it’s just a great way to keep that human connection to wildlife,” Dayer said.
Hawley agreed with that sentiment, and said she hopes their work helps advance policies that will foster both health and healthy relationships.
“In a world where so many of us live in cities or suburbs, having birds visit feeders in our yards or on our balconies is one of the only ways we get to connect daily with wildlife. But people want to be able to feed birds in ways that keep wild bird populations healthy and thriving,” Hawley said. “Our work will ideally help us develop guidelines for bird feeding that minimize risk to wild birds and maximize the benefits to the people that feed them.”
Newswise — There are few things tastier than the crisp bite of a cold IPA…for now.
A recent study published in the journal Nature Communications found the changing global climate may be affecting the flavor and cost of beer.
A warmer and drier climate is expected to lower the yield of hops — the aromatic flowers of the Humulus lupulus plant that give beer its signature bitter flavor — in Europe up to 18 percent by 2050. The alpha acid content of hops is also expected to drop as crops begin to ripen earlier.
“These climate variations may cause changes in the essential oils of particular varieties of hops,” said Herbert Bruce, assistant professor of practice for undergraduate education in Virginia Tech’s Department of Food Science and Technology and co-creator of the university’s official Fightin’ Hokies beers.
Bruce says that temperature and rainfall are a big part of that, which directly affect hop aroma and flavor. “It’s difficult to predict, but that could noticeably alter the aroma and flavor of beer. There’s already seasonal variation in the same variety of hops, but changes in the climate could exacerbate them.”
According to Bruce, these changes might be more widespread in the brewing industry than consumers would think.
“It’s important to remember that hops are a key ingredient in all beers, not just IPAs and other very bitter beers,” he said. “It’s also fairly common for American breweries to use European hops, especially noble or German hops in pilsners and other traditional lagers.”
Bruce was quick to specify that though the exact outcome is uncertain, bitter beers likely aren’t going anywhere, as brewers can adjust the amount of hops they use to maintain bitterness. But that’s much more difficult to do with the unique aromas of different hop varieties.
If warming temperatures cause decreased crop yields, Bruce said that price will likely be another factor affected.
“In the U.S. most hops are grown in the northwest. If the study is correct and drier climates reduce hop yield there, it will likely cause prices to go up. This could have a disproportionate impact on smaller craft breweries, as they tend to use only one to three types of hops in their beer,” said Bruce.
Bruce said it may take some time to see those costs impact the price of beer itself.
“Hops are only about four percent of the cost of a bottle of beer, so the price jump isn’t expected to be large initially. However, it’s really difficult to predict what other factors might come into play as the climate affects other areas of the economy.”
About Bruce
Herbert Bruce is assistant professor of practice for undergraduate education in the Virginia Tech Department of Food Science and Technology. He graduated from the Master Brewers program at UC Davis, passed the brewer’s exam from the Institute of Brewing and Distilling, London, and served as head brewer and plant manager of two microbreweries and one brewpub. He now teaches Applied Malting and Brewing Science and co-develops all of the university’s Fightin’ Hokies beers.
Interview
To schedule an interview with Herbert Bruce, contact Margaret Ashburn in the media relations office at [email protected] or 540-529-0814.
