Science & Technology

Hate drones?  They may soon become a way of life in the Commonwealth.

The anticipated surge in unmanned aerial vehicles-or UAVs-won't only be as a result of their popularity with hobbyists, but because of their use by emergency responders, power companies, and other industries.

Even if they carry an American brand name like Dell or HP, most of the personal computers in this country are made elsewhere, but a Charlottesville computer consultant thinks American kids should know how to build a PC, and he’s offered a summer program where campers do just that.  

It’s taken nine years for the NASA spaceship New Horizons to travel nearly 3 billion miles – to a far corner of our solar system, but later this month, it will fulfill its mission.  

On July 14th, just before 8 a.m. New Horizons will begin a fly-by of Pluto, the dwarf planet named for the Roman god of the underworld.  The space craft has traveled faster than any other launched from Earth, but after nine years, it won’t be able to stop for a visit.

Today, access to high speed Internet is considered as essential to modern life as electricity was, generations ago.  But most areas in rural Virginia still don’t have that level of access…and where there is high speed Internet, prices often remain high.  

“If you live in the country side it is very difficult to get it,” says Birdie Moye, Director of the Pearisburg Public Library. “Some days all our computers are booked up and a lot of them come in here to do resumes, looking for jobs, even do online schooling.”

The latest trends, whatever they’re surrounding, can be anything from fun and fabulous…to awful and appalling.  And it turns out, there’s a reason behind what’s popular at any given moment -- just think of the phrase, “birds of a feather flock together.” A new study by the Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute shows people really care what their peers think and take that information into account when making their own decisions.