Category: Science & Technology
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UVa’s Invisible Research Subsidies
The Trump administration’s proposed budget cuts to the National Institutes of Health will make it harder to find new cures — and harder to create new jobs, contends David S. Wilkes, dean of the University of Virginia’s School of Medicine. In 2016 UVa received $126 million in NIH funding, accounting for about 60% of its…
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Virginia Tech OK’s Intelligent Infrastructure Initiative
The Virginia Tech Board of Visitors voted Monday to approve a $78 million plan to make the university a leader in “intelligent infrastructure.” The term encompasses everything from self-driving cars and drones to smart construction and energy systems — areas, in the words of President Tim Sands, that are “related to energy systems for the cities of the…
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Fostering the TNC Revolution
It’s always refreshing when Republicans and Democrats in the General Assembly play well together. We don’t hear about such instances very often — reporters are drawn to conflict — but I suspect they occur more frequently than we hear about. An illuminating instance is how legislators from the two parties collaborated to create what Sen. Jennifer McClellan,…
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George Mason Achieves R1 Research Classification
George Mason University has received the coveted “R1” status bequeathed by the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education. Only 115 institutions across the country earn the “highest research activity” designation. States the cover story of the winter edition of Mason Spirit magazine: About 20 years ago, Mason thoughtfully began building a research portfolio that ranged…
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Who Needs Amazon Drones When You’ve Got a Starship Robot?
A robot developed by Starship Technologies, of London, can make deliveries in urban environments. Capable of carrying loads as large as two grocery bags, this “personal courier” can make deliveries of groceries, wine, flowers, whatever, within a three-mile radius. Customers can track the robot’s location location on a smart phone. “Our delivery platform will launch…
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Transportation Revolution Ain’t Slowing Down
Just a reminder of how rapidly technology is transforming automobiles and transportation, I submit two stories published yesterday…. From the Daily Progress: Perrone Robotics, a Crozet-based software company, is testing automated and fully autonomous vehicles on Virginia roads. Although driverless cars in Virginia must be manned, the laws regulating autonomous driving are more accommodating here than in…
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Forget Globalization. Worry about Automation.
Watcha gonna do… watcha gonna do… whatcha gonna do when robots come for you? Robots aren’t science fiction. You need to start thinking about them — and so does Virginia’s political establishment. The 2015 Oxford automation study, “The Future of Employment: How Susceptible Are Jobs to Computerisation,” concluded that 47% of all U.S. jobs in 702…
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UVa, Inova Partner in Research Initiative
by James A. Bacon The University of Virginia and Inova Health System have joined forces in a $112 million partnership to launch a medical campus and a biomedical research initiative in Fairfax County. The partnership has three main components: A cancer research partnership between the Inova Schar Cancer Institute and UVa. Cancer Center. The aspiration…
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Virginia Tech Makes Big Bet on Big Data
by James A. Bacon Virginia Tech wants another $70 million of your tax dollars. That’s a lot of money, but give Tech credit for thinking big. Its audacious plans for a $225 million Global Business and Analytics Complex could be the next big thing that elevates the university to ever greater heights of prominence. Of course,…
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For All Its Problems, the State IT Contract Is Functioning Like It Should
by James A. Bacon The relationship between the Virginia Information Technologies Agency and Northrup Grumman is getting nasty as the two bang heads over the alleged breaches of the $1.3 billion, 13-year contract to provide IT services to Virginia state government. Del. John O’Bannon III, R-Henrico, called the relationship between the two “a whirlwind courtship, short…
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How to Stop Worrying and Learning to Love the Nuke
by James A. Bacon I don’t know what kind of future the nuclear power industry has in the United States, but whatever it is, Virginia wants to grab a piece of it. The Virginia Nuclear Energy Consortium (VNEC) and the Center for Advanced Engineering and Research (CAER) have announced a plan to join forces to bring…
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The Future (Shock) Is Now
by James A. Bacon I love my Microsoft Surface tablet but the darn thing doesn’t take a charge anymore, so it has been rendered useless. I can no longer access my email account and, thus, I’m out of touch with the world for the duration of my beach vacation. My apologies if communications go unanswered.…
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Free the Data!
by James A. Bacon I’m not sure if this idea will lead anywhere but it’s worth a try: The Commonwealth of Virginia has released an open data set of job postings in the state with the hope that someone will come up with innovative ways to use it. The initiative arises from an executive order…
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How One Gas Plant Can Save Billions
There’s more to the natural gas boom than fracking. Technology deployed at Dominion’s Greensville power plant will squeeze more electricity out of a BTU of gas than ever before. by James A. Bacon Last month Dominion Virginia Power commenced construction of the $1.3 billion Greensville County Power Station. When it opens in late 2018, the…
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Learning from the “Fat Hypothesis” and the Intersection of Science and Politics
by James A. Bacon Ian Leslie has written a long piece for The Guardian, a left-wing English newspaper that to the best of my knowledge is not funded by the Koch Brothers. He chronicles how the medical hypothesis blaming fat and cholesterol for heart disease became ensconced as scientific orthodoxy in the United States and…