With Good Reason

Bacteriophages are everywhere you look — in the soil, in the ocean, in your backyard.  They’re viruses that infect bacteria, and they could one day be used to fight off drug-resistant strains of bacteria like tuberculosis.   Mark Forsyth and Kurt Williamson (College of William and Mary) lead a group of students into the field [...]

Holding a student’s attention for longer than five seconds is no easy task.  Despite an innate curiosity, children often find classrooms downright boring.  But why?   Daniel Willingham (University of Virginia), a cognitive scientist, believes the trick to keeping young brains engaged in school is to find the perfect level of challenge – not too [...]

Female tree frogs use complex information processing when listening to the mating calls of male frogs to select their mates.  Kit Murphy (James Madison University) is discovering how females make their choices and may be close to answering the age old question, “Why is she with him?”  Also featured: Between 33 and 50 percent of [...]

Access to health care is still a major challenge for many Americans, even with the recent government overhaul.  In Appalachia, access can be even more limited.  With the nearest  health specialists sometimes hundreds of miles away, many people rely on free clinics for their medical, dental, and vision needs.  Thousands travel to Wise, Virginia each year for a weekend of teeth [...]

You know what it’s like to have a song stuck in your head. But what if your brain was constantly making music of its own without your knowledge? “Brainwave Chick” Paras Kaul (George Mason University) has found a way to tap into the natural melodies of her mind, convert them to digital sound, and make [...]

Before Harry Potter had a cloak that made him invisible, the Romulans had a cloaking device that made their space ships invisible to crew of the Enterprise on the TV series Star Trek.  Sir John Pendry says the power of invisibility could soon become a reality thanks to the use of materials which bend light.   [...]

In the 18th century it was hard cider, not beer, that was the alcoholic beverage of choice. Even children often drank hard cider with breakfast and dinner because it was safer than the water.  So how did this preference for hard cider disappear from the American palate?  David Williams (George Mason University) investigates the demise [...]

Historians have long held that children of 17 th and 18 th century Europe were thought of as incomplete adults who were not yet worthy of love or compassion. However, historian Michael Galgano (James Madison University) says actually children were understood to be in a different stage of life, and they were celebrated and loved.  [...]

In her new book “Bible Babel: Making Sense of the Most Talked About Book of All Time”, Kristin Swenson (Virginia Commonwealth University) explains what the Bible is, where it comes from, and shows how people use the Bible to argue today’s most controversial issues.   She also speaks about the Bible’s universality and relevance in our [...]

Last month 29 miners were killed in West Virginia in the worst mining disaster to strike America in four decades.   In an effort to prevent future mining tragedies, Col. Jim Squire, Lt. Col. Jay Sullivan, and Maj. Elizabeth Baker (Virginia Military Institute) have developed a device that uses seismic waves to communicate with miners [...]