March 2025 Media Highlights
New York Times - Are Ultraprocessed Foods Addictive? - A few drugs, like cocaine and amphetamines, trigger dramatic surges in dopamine that are obvious on PET scans, but for others, like nicotine or opioids, the dopamine responses are smaller and not always detectable, said Alexandra DiFeliceantonio, a neuroscientist at Virginia Tech who was not involved with the study.
NPR - A look into Iran's economic woes - "The economic outlook is likely to get worse", says Djavad Salehi-Isfahani, a professor of economics at Virginia Tech focusing on the Middle East and Iran. He says the Trump administration recently reimposed the so-called maximum pressure campaign designed to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon by increasing sanctions and cutting its oil exports to zero.
Forbes - What Impact Will Robotaxis Have On Our Lives? - Cruise, in a study with the University of Michigan and Virginia Tech, discovered that robotaxis “are 50% less likely to be involved in collisions and 70% less likely to be involved in injury-causing crashes compared with human ride-hail drivers in urban areas.”
Good Morning America - BOLDEST OSCARS RED CARPET FASHION: ABC's Danny New TV dives into this year's Oscars looks, from hoodies to glittery gowns. - Danny New: I spoke with fashion expert and Virginia Tech professor Stephany Greene, who helped explain fashion to someone who — yeah, not my thing. Stephany said ‘A Complete Unknown’ star Timothy Chalamet’s trendy lemon look in tuxedo is one of the winners of the night, while his co-star Elle Fanning stunned in a classic old Hollywood look from… Greene: Givenchy.
Live Now Fox - President Zelenskyy to attend EU summit - Today, European Union leaders will hold emergency talks in Brussels. This is the first summit of 27 nations since the explosive meeting last week between US President Trump and Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who is also expected to attend. Yannis Stivachtis, Professor of European Studies at the Department of Political Science at Virginia Tech, joined LiveNOW from FOX to discuss.
Business Insider - The art of no deal: Negotiation experts dissect Trump and Zelenskyy's Oval Office clash - Curtis Friedel, an associate professor and director of the Center for Cooperative Problem Solving at Virginia Tech, said the meeting was more about "ego" than nuanced negotiation or leadership. "It appears to me, from a negotiation perspective, that stakeholders wanted a deal more than the leaders wanted a deal. Both parties thus ended up embarrassing themselves," Friedel said.
Digital Trends - Google AI Mode will reinvent Search. I’m worried — and you should be, too - When asked whether astronauts met cats on the moon, it confidently agreed that it was true, adding that astronauts even took care of those lunar cats. Virginia Tech digital literacy expert, Julia Feerrar, remarked that AI doesn’t actually know the answers to our questions, citing an example where Google AI overview confidently mentioned Barack Obama as the first Muslim President.
New York Times - Take a Deep Breath. If You Dare. - Through the 1990s, viruses were described in terms of war — the “single biggest threat to man’s continued dominance on the planet,” in the words of the Nobel laureate Joshua Lederberg. Slowly, researchers like Linsey Marr returned to the Wellses’ work, which was rooted in community.
Time - What Is a Smishing Scam and How to Stay Safe - Smishing can be particularly convincing, posing as a FedEx carrier, bank, or other known entity. Since the scam happens via text, people may be particularly vulnerable to them. “Text messages are more intimate, and you check them more quickly than emails, so people start falling for those scams,” says Murat Kantarcioglu, a professor of computer science at Virginia Tech.
Axios - AI failed to detect critical health conditions: study - "We are asking the models to make big decisions, and so we really need to figure out ... in what kind of situations they can perform," said Danfeng (Daphne) Yao, an author of the study and a computer science professor at Virginia Tech.
The Hill - How can daylight saving time impact your health? - Outside of the immediate disruption in your sleep, switching the clocks can wreak havoc on our biological clocks, according to Carla Finkielstein, a professor with Virginia Tech’s Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC and scientific director of the institute’s Molecular Diagnostics Laboratory.
FOX Business Network - How daylight saving time can impact the economy - Jadrian Wooten, professor of economics at Virginia Tech, explains the economic repercussions of daylight saving time.
The Conversation - Are Ukrainians ready for ceasefire and concessions? Here’s what the polls say - A U.S.-Ukraine accord on a ceasefire proposal has put the notion of a negotiated end to the three-year war on the agenda, and in the hands of Russian President Vladimir Putin. - written by Gerard Toal
The Conversation - Putin mulls over US-Ukrainian ceasefire proposal – but the initial signs aren’t positive - In all this shuttle diplomacy, one question that you hear more rarely is what the Ukrainian public will be prepared to accept. Over the past three years Gerard Toal of Virginia Tech University, John O’Loughlin of the University of Colorado and Kristin M. Bakke of UCL have provided us with some valuable insights based on polling of the Ukrainian public. They believe that while the majority of Ukrainians are war-weary and willing to make concessions, even ceding territory in return for peace, they are not willing to compromise their country’s political independence. They also don’t trust Putin and see the war in existential terms.
Technical.ly - Check out Virginia Tech’s $1B innovation campus, now open in Alexandria - Drones and other autonomous vehicles could soon help one another navigate dangerous terrain without actual communication. Thanks to research out of Virginia Tech, they may even eventually operate with common sense. Students and faculty are fusing quantum computing, artificial intelligence and wireless technology to build synced autonomous vehicles. It’s also the concept of a digital twin, explained professor Walid Saad from the school’s Bradley Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.
LiveNOW Fox - Russia shoots down 337 Ukrainian drones - Senior officials from Ukraine and the United States opened talks Tuesday on how to end Moscow’s three-year war against Kyiv, hours after Russian air defenses shot down 343 Ukrainian drones in the biggest such attack since the Kremlin ordered the full-scale invasion of its neighbor. Dimitris Tsarouhas, a Virginia Tech foreign relations expert and visiting professor of political science joined LiveNOW from FOX's Josh Breslow to discuss.
LiveNOW Fox - President Trump meets with GOP leaders today - Today, Senate GOP leaders and Finance committee members will meet with President Trump, at the White House, to make their case on how to make his 2017 tax cuts permanent. Cayce Myers, with Virginia Tech, joins LiveNOW from FOX to share what we can expect.
Education Week - How to Structure Lessons to Build Reading and Writing Skills - Reading and writing are so intertwined that instruction in one is bound to benefit the other. Here, Dana Robertson, an associate professor of reading and literacy education at Virginia Tech, offers actionable tips for teachers on ways to intentionally incorporate both disciplines into their lessons.
New York Times - Science Amid Chaos: What Worked During the Pandemic? What Failed? - If you venture out in a “huge, heavy rainstorm, your umbrella alone is not going to keep you from getting wet,” said Linsey Marr, an expert in airborne viruses at Virginia Tech. “You need your umbrella; you need your boots; you need your waterproof pants and jacket; and you would probably try to avoid the puddles,” she said.