Science Corner
Featured Columns by Faculty in the Roanoke Times
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A race to identify species, before they vanish , redirectHere’s a mind-boggling concept: Many scientists think that there are more species yet to be discovered than have been discovered already. Even after hundreds of millions of specimens have been collected and catalogued, we are still lacking information about many species, particularly in the diverse tropical regions. To truly understand the biodiversity of our natural habitats, we need faster methods to survey and identify species, so that we can determine the most important areas to conserve.
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Patrick Huber: Neutrinos and nuclear weapons , redirectIn addition to the title of a horror movie in the 1980s, Poltergeist was the name of the first experiment trying to prove the existence of neutrinos.
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J.E. “Jeb” Barrett: Weather ‘whiplash’ in Antarctic may help us anticipate the effects of future climate changes in Virginia , redirectA polar Vortex in February 2021 caused record cold temperatures over most of the U.S., including my family’s farm in Hiwassee, where the cold snap killed over 200 of our lavender plants that had already begun to bud out following an unusually warm January. This was when I started getting interested in “weather whiplash,” rapid changes in weather conditions from one extreme to another.
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Webster Santos: Exercise in a pill , redirectTweaking the molecules by adding and removing pieces like a Lego, we can plug the enzyme or transporter to block its signal. We have been successful in demonstrating that our strategy works in both cells and animal models of kidney disease.
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Ryan M. Pollyea: Reaching for net zero with underground CO2 storage , redirectClimate change is melting glaciers, increasing sea level, extending hurricane season, and intensifying wildfires.
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Michael A. Robert: Mosquito-borne diseases, climate, and mathematics , redirectFor those of us in Southwest Virginia, mosquitoes are a nuisance to outdoor activities and only rarely cause greater concern.
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Sue Ge: The Groundwork of Cooperation , redirectA little bit of competition, especially if it’s healthy, never hurts anybody. However, the secret sauce that makes the world go around is cooperation.
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Jungmeen Kim-Spoon: Children can learn to overcome adversity, neglect, or worse , redirectWhen it comes to “human resilience” people often perceive it as something that someone is born with. However, this perception is not the full story.
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Chinmay Katke and Nadir Kaplan: Unlocking the potential of hydrogels for flexible robots , redirectThe future holds promise for robots to actively collaborate in diverse aspects of human endeavor, transforming industries.
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Tina Dura: Revealing clues of Earth's turbulent past , redirectThe detective work required to reconstruct the history of past earthquakes is conducted by coastal paleoseismologists. Cascadia’s coastlines act as natural seismographs, recording the footprints of past earthquakes and tsunamis through various geological clues.
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