November 2024 Media Highlights

NPR - Denver high school kids built an AI app to help immigrants vote - Transcription: ​​BRUNDIN: The answers are clear and simple to understand. In the larger world, experts say going to one of the big chatbots for voter information is not a good idea. They can give you incorrect or biased information depending on how you phrase your question. Virginia Tech Professor Cayce Myers. CAYCE MYERS: As we know with all things AI, there's a real due diligence on behalf of the users to fact-check it and to verify what they're being told.

CNN (also AOL) - Why you’re more likely to solve your problems on a therapist’s sofa than on social media - Other times, patients might wrongly believe they have a mental health condition when they don’t. Feelings of worry, anxiety, sadness and fear are normal parts of the human experience, said Milam, who is also an associate professor of psychology at Virginia Tech’s Carilion School of Medicine.

US News & World Report - Banning Menthol Cigarettes Might Drive Smokers to Quit-Smoking Therapies - “I think the most important conclusion from this study is that we can improve health outcomes by emphasizing policies that reduce sales of flavored products and increase accessibility of nicotine replacement therapies,” said researcher Roberta Freitas-Lemos, an assistant professor at the Virginia Tech Fralin Biomedical Research Institute.

US News & World Report - Yoga for Stress Relief During Presidential Elections - Yoga is the best tool for stress reduction, says Jula Basso, an assistant professor in the Department of Human Nutrition, Foods and Exercise at Virginia Tech and the director of the Embodied Brain Laboratory. Her work bridges the fields of art and science, focusing on the body-brain connection and using movement to enhance brain function and physiology. “It’s amazing because the effects are acute: They’re pretty immediate. Some of the mood benefits can last up to 24 hours. Yoga, in particular, brings in this mind component, where meditation is at the core. It’s a wonderful practice to calm the mind and focus the mind,” says Basso. 

LiveNOW FOX - 2024 Election: AP declares Trump winner - Donald Trump has been elected the 47th president of the United States. Trump’s win in Wisconsin put him over the 270 threshold needed to clinch the presidency. In earlier election remarks at Florida’s Palm Beach Convention Center, Trump vowed not to rest “until we have delivered the strong and prosperous America.” Dr. Cayce Myers, Professor and Director of Graduate Studies at Virginia Tech weighs in.

LiveNOW FOX - 2024 Election live results & updates - Cayce Myers, Virginia Tech Public Relations Professor, joins LiveNOW from FOX to about the latest election results. Trump won the battleground state of Pennsylvania, according to FOX News.

LiveNOW FOX (also picked up by FOX affiliates) - Trump accepts Biden's invitation to the White House - President-elect Donald Trump has accepted an invitation from President Joe Biden to visit the White House for a meeting between the two. Cayce Myers, a political expert at Virginia Tech joined LiveNOW from FOX's Josh Breslow to discuss that meeting and other election headlines.

The Economic Times - From Taylor Swift to Oprah Winfrey: How celebrity endorsements could impact the US Election - Musk’s influence in Trump’s campaign has sparked mixed reactions. Karen Hult, a political scientist at Virginia Tech, pointed out that while Musk’s support may attract some, his divisive persona could alienate others. “Musk is a highly divisive figure,” Hult noted, adding that this tech-focused approach could backfire by mobilizing opposition.

Al Jazeera - Here come the US election 2024 celebrity endorsements – but do they matter? When asked about the impact of Swift’s 2024 endorsement, Karen Hult, a political scientist at Virginia Tech University, said, “It could make a difference”, particularly given Swift’s popularity with the key demographic of women aged 18 to 30. Similarly, experts like Schultz credit Oprah Winfrey for helping Barack Obama gain inroads with suburban women in his first presidential race.

BBC - 'Give us back our gods': Inside Nepal's Museum of Stolen Art - It was spotted by Dr Sweta Gyanu Baniya, a Nepali academic based in the US who said she fell to her knees and started to cry when she saw the necklace. "It's not just a necklace, it's a part of our goddess who we worship. I felt like it shouldn't be here. It's sacred," she told the US university Virginia Tech.

Epoch Times - Economy Dominates Many Voters' Minds as They Head to the Polls - In a recent interview with The Epoch Times, Karen Hult, a political science professor at Virginia Tech, agreed that this has presented a dilemma for the Harris campaign. However, Hult emphasized the difficulties in changing public perceptions regarding inflation. “There is not much that Vice President Harris can do to distinguish herself from the Biden–Harris record,” she said. “There is nothing they can do about perceptions of the economy.”

The Conversation - America’s glass ceiling remains − here are some of the reasons why a woman may have once again lost the presidency - Amy Lieberman, a politics and society editor at The Conversation U.S., spoke with Farida Jalalzai, a scholar of women political leaders and gender in politics, to better understand the significance of Harris’ defeat – and how the U.S. stands apart from other countries that have had female leaders.

Interesting Engineering (also MSN and Popular Mechanics) - Billion-year-old rocks could be hiding dark matter, scientists surprise - “The team has already started generating 3D renderings of high-energy particle tracks in synthetic lithium fluoride. This artificial crystal won’t make a good dark-matter detector, but it will help establish the full range of signals while keeping the crystal intact,” Patrick Huber, a physicist at Virginia Tech, said.

Parents - Why You Should Be Worried When Your Kid Says They’re ‘Crashing Out’ - “The brains and bodies of tweens and teens are in a dynamic state of growth and development, as are their abilities to regulate emotions, make well-thought-out decisions, and manage social, school, family, and personal pressures," says Tom Milam, MD, MDiv, Chief Medical Officer of Iris Telehealth, Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine at the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine, and Attending Psychiatrist at Carilion Clinic.

Insider Higher Ed - Colleges Deploy Meditation and Baked Potato Bars to Combat Election Stress - Those feelings can be especially intense among first-time voters, who in prior years may not have paid much attention to politics, experts say. That’s why many universities are creating new initiatives in an attempt to support student mental well-being—or at least distract them from the urge to catastrophize. Other events focus less on relaxing and more on trying to foster open and respectful discussions about the election’s results, such as a “Restorative Dialogue Across Differences” scheduled for Wednesday at Virginia Tech.

IFL Science - After Snowball Earth Came Short-lived Slushball Earth, Lithium Isotopes Prove - Dr Tian Gan, then at Virginia Tech, was part of a team that explored what happened afterward using the ratio of lithium-6 to lithium-7 in carbonate rocks laid down as the ice melted. Their work supports a model of the process known as plumeworld.

Focus (Germany) - Translation error challenge Newton's law - The basic principles of classical Newton are the foundation of modern physics. But what if one of these fundamental laws has been based on an erroneous translation for centuries? Daniel Hoek, Professor at Virginia Tech, revealed this article in an article he published in the Cambridge University Press Journal in February 2022. His discovery has now led to a growing media interest in two years later and is also causing a stir among experts.

Clarin - ¿Por qué ganó Donald Trump? Algunas claves del contundente giro a la derecha en Estados Unidos - Google translation: Karen Hult, professor of Political Science at Virginia Tech University, told Clarín that “three things seem key to Donald Trump's victory: 1) perceptions of the economy (concerns about inflation, prices of goods and services such as food, gasoline , healthcare and housing. 2) An “anti-government mentality” also appears to be part of the story, perhaps analogous to what has happened in the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, Poland, South Africa and South Korea. 3) In the US, many were evidently concerned about the southern border, perceived a “cultural shift” and perhaps felt ignored or unheard by the Democratic party.”

NBC News (also picked up by NBC affiliates) - Ozempic and Wegovy may help curb alcohol addiction, study suggests - Only three medicines, however, are approved to treat it. “The pharmacological treatments available for AUD are not very good, and relapse is really common,” said Alex DiFeliceantonio, an assistant professor at Virginia Tech’s Fralin Biomedical Research Institute.

Epoch Times - How some parents deal with the reality of modern parenting - There are families where parents often struggle with the same issues as their children, be it anxiety, depression or ADHD. Rosanna Breaux, director of the Child Study Center, Virginia Tech.

Times Higher Education - How to bring Indigenous knowledge into classrooms and curricula - Edward Polanco is an assistant professor of history and director of the Indigenous studies programme at Virginia Tech.

Inside Higher Education - Academic Success Tip: Assign Exam Wrappers - Some professors embed the wrapper in an online test and award students credit for completing the reflection, while others distribute physical papers stapled to the exam, according to the University of Vermont Center for Teaching and Learning. Collecting completed wrappers can help identify patterns among class comments but are most effective in the hands of students so they can make adjustments for future tests, according to Virginia Tech’s Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning.

The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education - How Early Childhood Education Affects Black Children’s Future Success - For the past five decades, a team of researchers from several universities has tracked a sample of predominantly Black participants who were born into poverty from early childhood into adulthood to examine the impact of early childhood education on their longterm outcomes. According to their recent findings, there are significant differences in how early childhood education affects Black men and women. The research team consisted of scholars from the University of Virginia, Ohio State University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the University of Connecticut, and Virginia Tech.

Space Daily - The shifting history of North America's ancient ice sheet - Yet, while picturing this immense ice mass is fascinating, the present-day implications of its retreat - particularly concerning land shifts and sea-level changes - are of pressing interest. Ph.D. candidate Karen Williams, from the Department of Geosciences at Virginia Tech, has taken on this challenge. Using advanced computer models, Williams is investigating how Earth's landscape transformed as the ice receded and how these changes may inform current issues like sea-level rise and sinking land.

Women's Health Magazine The cycling deals to keep an eye out for that are sure to get your wheels turning this Black Friday - Safety is always worth the investment, but you can save almost half odd this quality mint green number. It's adjustable, has an inbuilt cooling system and received a 5-Star Virginia Tech ® Helmet Rating ™.

El Pais (also BBC Brazil) - Meet the island of the U.S. With more than two million snakes that swept away birds and now threaten the ecosystem - Five years ago, Haldre Rogers, an associate professor in the Virginia Tech Department of Fish and Wildlife Conservation, attended a meeting on this tropical island, located about 2,492 kilometers from the Philippines in the western Pacific.