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Peanut butter and jelly. Fireworks and the Fourth of July. A juicy burger and a crisp German lager. Some things just go together.  With the recent rise of craft beer in the U.S., Americans now have more beer choices than ever before. While it’s tempting to serve your favorite adult beverage with every dish, pairing the right beer style with your dish of choice can elevate your Independence Day meal.

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Ahead of the July 4th holiday, Virginia Tech experts can speak on a variety of topics, including food & beer pairings for cookouts, pets & fireworks safety, grilling safety tips, and more. To schedule an interview, please contact the media relations office at [email protected]. Safeguarding pets on the 4th of July Summer heat and holiday travel can always be dangerous for pets, and so can the noise of fireworks.

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While summer is a time for fun in the sun, we often hear of parents expressing their concern about the “summer slide.” It’s when the loss of learning opportunities during the break lead to regression in reading and math. Some studies suggest up to a month of learning is lost over the summer, but according to Tonya Price, a 4-H youth development extension specialist with Virginia Cooperative Extension, there are many things that can be done to keep children learning and engaged while out of the classroom.

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The 2022 Atlantic hurricane season was among the most damaging and deadly in modern history, but that isn’t necessarily an indicator for 2023. According to Virginia Tech meteorologist Stephanie Zick most seasonal forecasts are predicting a near average season, which goes from June 1 to November 30. NOAA’s outlook predicts a 40% chance of a near-normal season, with numbers similar to last year.

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Philadelphia work commuters and vacationers heading to the City of Brotherly Love or the Jersey shore are nearly a week into grappling with and sitting in stand-still traffic after a tanker truck fire collapsed part of a I-95 bridge in the northern part of the city. The fire also heavily damaged the southbound lane of I-95. How all this stress and time-waste affects commuters and their workday performance and/or their behavior at home after the commute is part of larger phenomenon that psychologists call “commuting spillover.

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Virginia Tech media expert Megan Duncan provides context for the dramatic resignation of CNN CEO Chris Licht after 13 months as head of the cable news network.

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Former U.S. vice president and Indiana governor Mike Pence is expected to announce an historic presidential run Wednesday — historic because he’ll be vying against his one-time boss, former President Donald Trump, for the Republican nomination in 2024.

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Revelation of a sharp decline in the valuation of Twitter “illustrates not just the consequences of [Elon] Musk’s stewardship, but the myriad challenges that exist for anyone managing a social media platform,” explains Virginia Tech media expert Megan Duncan. “Buying a social media platform might be easy, but governing it is hard.”

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Each Memorial Day, James Dubinsky takes some time to reflect. A retired U.S. Army veteran and now an associate professor of English at Virginia Tech who works with veteran communities, Dubinsky said each Memorial Day he remembers friends who died while serving, often by reading what other veterans have written. He also reflects on the meaning of Memorial Day.

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The weather is warming up which means it's time to watch out for ticks. One way to protect yourself from tick-borne illnesses is to rethink landscaping choices, from the municipal level down to individual yards, according to a Virginia Tech medical geography expert who studies how Lyme cases are associated with certain land cover characteristics and configurations.

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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis plans to launch his presidential campaign through Elon Musk's social media platform Twitter, an unusual, attention-grabbing move with potential rewards and risks for candidates and voters. Virginia Tech media expert Megan Duncan discusses the implications DeSantis' choice has for democracy.

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Hamburgers are an American classic. There are few foods that embody what a Memorial Day weekend should taste like sinking your teeth into a juicy burger hot off the grill. But with more and more Americans opting for beef-alternatives like plant-based and turkey burgers in recent years, it’s important to keep in mind that the requirements for safely cooking and enjoying a beef hamburger won’t necessarily apply to a black bean burger.

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Bees serve an important role in pollinating our gardens. However, homeowners looking to venture into beekeeping have a lot to think about long before any potential honey harvest. James M. Wilson, beekeeping expert for Virginia Tech and Virginia Cooperative Extension, has plenty of tips to offer about starting up and tending to a personal beehive.

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Mike Horning, an associate professor of multimedia journalism at Virginia Tech’s School of Communication, discusses Montana's ban of TikTok, Twitter's newly-appointed CEO, and what these developments could mean for these embattled yet still highly influential social media platforms.

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A new report from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) shows that the world’s average temperature could breach a record 1.5 Celsius of warming compared to pre-Industrial Revolution levels. News reports call the WMO announcement a critical warning of an average world temperature limit in the face of climate. Researchers indicate the threshold could be broken as early as 2027.

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What is a “brain freeze,” and how can we enjoy a refreshingly cold treat this summer without having to endure one? Virginia Tech neuroscientist Kristofer Rau explains the science beyond these quick-onset headaches and how to avoid them — or at least make them go away faster.

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While President Joe Biden says that he is confident he can reach a deal with Republicans over the debt ceiling, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is warning of “economic chaos” should that not come to fruition. Virginia Tech economist Jadrian Wooten says if a deal is not reached by June 1, the impact on the U.S. and globally would be significant.

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Efforts are underway to address the “epidemic of loneliness and isolation” affecting the country, as recently addressed by the U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy who is laying out a “National Strategy to Advance Social Connection” initiative. Virginia Tech neuroscientist Georgia Hodes says that reports of depression and anxiety are up at least 3-fold since the start of the COVID epidemic.

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Hollywood screenwriters have gone on strike. The Writers Guild of America (WGA) seeks higher pay, upfront fees from streaming services, better working conditions and reassurance that studios won’t use artificial intelligence programs to generate scripts. The last WGA strike, 15 years ago, led to permanent changes in the entertainment landscape, such as the rise of reality television.

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May is a month to recognize the importance of cancer research, with both Brain Tumor Awareness Month and National Cancer Research Month taking center stage. Virginia Tech’s Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC is dedicated to advancing our understanding of cancer and developing new ways to treat and prevent it. Teams of investigators are working to uncover the molecular mechanisms that drive cancer growth, migration, and metastasis.

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The abrupt closing of First Republic Bank stirred fresh anxieties about the security of the banking system, unfolding less than two months after the back-to-back, historically huge failures of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank. This month all 84 branches of the former First Republic Bank opened with a new name after an emergency sale orchestrated by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC).

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Medicaid benefits were expanded during the COVID-19 pandemic to cover low-income patients without a need for them to prove their eligibility or to reapply. At the end of March, those benefit expansions expired, and states have begun reviewing the Medicaid rolls to remove those who do not qualify, a process that could create new hardships for millions of Americans.

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The most anticipated media trial in recent years ended with a $787.5 million settlement, and while it had the opportunity to set the tone for future defamation litigation, Virginia Tech media expert Megan Duncan says the outcome will have little impact on the perceived credibility of Fox News.   “Few people are willing to reassess their perceptions of the credibility of Fox News — whether they side with the news organization or believe it was in the wrong — because politically active people associate partisan news brands with their political identity,” Duncan says.

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The decision of social media platform Twitter under ownership of tech mogul Elon Musk to label National Public Radio and the Public Broadcasting Service as “U.S. state-affiliated media” caused the prominent news outlets to respond by ending use of Twitter. This conflict is the latest in an escalating series of conflicts between Musk and media outlets of multiple stripes.

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The Virginia Tech media relations office has the following experts available for interviews surrounding the environment, energy, and sustainability. To schedule an interview, please contact [email protected]. Rising seas threatens U.S. coastlines and cities A recently released report from the U.N. on climate change found that rising sea levels are "unavoidable for centuries to millennia due to continuing deep ocean warming and ice sheet melt, and sea levels will remain elevated for thousands of years.

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Artificial intelligence’s rapid growth has led to advancements like autonomous vehicles, virtual reality, and ChatGPT. But AI technologies and the training of AI models require a lot of energy, increasing concerns about the environmental impact of AI and its sustainability. To put AI’s energy usage into perspective: it took nine days to train one of OpenAI’s early model chatbots known as MegatronLM.

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A white-tailed deer afflicted with chronic wasting disease — also frequently referred to as “zombie deer disease” — will appear abnormally thin, move sluggishly, and salivate excessively. There is no cure: chronic wasting disease (CWD) is contagious and always fatal, and it has been detected with increasing frequency in Virginia and other states, raising concerns about effects on the deer population.

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Discord, a chat platform originally built for online gaming, is now subject of intense scrutiny after intelligence documents were leaked - allegedly by a member of the military. James Ivory, a Virginia Tech professor who researches social media and video game use related to military simulations and links to political extremism and intelligence risks, said Discord has become a very mainstream platform for individual and community messaging.

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In the digital age, an increased desire for constant online connection has created safety hazards for drivers on the road. It’s especially top of mind during the month of April, which is Distracted Driver Awareness Month, but Virginia Tech Transportation Institute (VTTI) researcher, Charlie Klauer says that technology can also be part of the solution.

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Labor strikes and protests by Israeli military officers have decried moves by the government of Prime Minister Benjamin (“Bibi”) Netanyahu to overhaul the judiciary system, potentially reducing the power of the country’s Supreme Court. After firing a defense minister who opposed the overhaul last week, Netanyahu agreed to delay the judicial review for now.

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The rapid collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, the second-largest bank failure in U.S. history, has caused ongoing worries about the stability of the nation’s banking system even as federal authorities step in to manage the crisis. Further anxieties arose with the federal takeover of cryptocurrency-focused Signature Bank — the third largest bank failure in U.

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TikTok, the world’s fastest-growing social media app, used by two-thirds of America’s teenagers, has federal lawmakers debating its potential threat to national security with legislation introduced by a bipartisan coalition of U.S. Senators  empowering President Joe Biden to ban its use. Mike Horning, an associate professor of multimedia journalism at Virginia Tech’s School of Communication, offers his perspective about the issues with TikTok that have put government officials on edge.

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SNAP serves as the nation’s and the state’s largest line of defense against hunger and food insecurity. SNAP, formerly called food stamps, provides cash benefits to purchase food to eligible individuals with low incomes. Elena Serrano, director of the Virginia Cooperative Extension Family Nutrition Program, says, “Ending the enhanced benefits will affect households who have the most to lose, those households that qualified for maximum benefits, who will lose an added $95 per month in benefits. On average SNAP participants will lose $82 per month.”

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By the end of March, Netflix plans to crack down on password sharing for U.S. subscribers. This announcement has been met by surprise, outrage, and confusion as consumers ponder how their Netflix accounts will be affected. Jadrian Wooten, a professor of economics at Virginia Tech, provides his perspective on the issue.

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Expectations that inflation has eased fueled recent stock market gains, but results from two major price-tracking indexes came in higher than expected, dousing that optimism with cold water. The statistics from these reports have economists predicting that the Federal Reserve will continue to raise interest rates to get inflation under control.

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New guidelines released by the Food and Drug Administration can help consumers better understand nutritional difference between plant-based and dairy milks, according to a food science expert. Some people believe plant-based and dairy milks are nutritionally similar, but that is not thecase, says Melissa Wright, director of the Food Producer Technical Assistant Network at Virginia Tech.

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The one-year anniversary of Russia’s invasion – or in the words of Kremlin leaders, “special military operation” – has left thousands dead or wounded, scores of buildings and infrastructure destroyed or damaged, and millions of people displaced. The economic damage from the war reaches far beyond the borders of Ukraine and Russia.

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Viral challenges have been around almost as long as the internet. Some, like the ice bucket challenge are good, raising awareness on important issues. But others are not, and can put both youth and their parents at risk. What makes these viral challenges attractive for youth? How should parents approach the topic of online safety with their children? A Virginia 4-H specialist and a Virginia 4-H’er provide advice on how to do just this.

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Residents of Southern Turkey were again jolted by a new earthquake Monday, this trembler reported by the U.S. Geology Survey (USGS) as 6.3 in magnitude. News reports state that scores of buildings that were damaged in powerful quakes on February 6 have been further damaged or outright collapsed. Virginia Tech’s Robert Weiss, who studies natural hazards, calls the devastating trio of earthquake “unusual,” but not “impossible.

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The earthquakes in Turkey and Syria killed over 45,000 people and decimated large areas. The shockingly high number of fatalities raises the question of whether infrastructure issues are to blame. Roberto Leon, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Virginia Tech, said there are several reasons for the large number of collapses, leading to mass casualties: Poor enforcement of existing codes (modern codes instituted after the 1999 Izmit earthquake) Grandfathering of older, deficient structures and not requiring their retrofit (structures built before 1999) Poor construction practices (i.

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