Esther I. Brown
dynamic, detail-oriented creativeC-VILLE Issue #18.04
Issue #18.04 :: 01/24/2006 – 01/30/2006
Friday, January 20
Warner whips Allen in poll
According to a survey recently commissioned by the UVA Center for Politics, if Virginians were asked to choose the next U.S. President today, given a choice between former Governor Mark Warner (D) and U.S. Senator George Allen (R), nearly half would lend Warner their support. Close to one-third said they would vote for Allen, himself a former governor, and all of the 1,181 polled are said to have voted last fall. “It’s rare that there are two significant candidates from the same state, especially from a medium-sized state like Virginia,” says Center Director Larry Sabato of the results released today. “The question that naturally arises is, ‘which one is the king of the hill? Which one has more support in the state?’” Characterizing them as “an absolute runaway” for Warner, Sabato says he was surprised by the results. “Of course, it’s very early; anything can happen,” Sabato says. “How much influence [a poll] has is anybody’s guess.”
Sunday, January 22
Everybody knows Wladek Minor—do you?
This week we learned that a 1997 paper co-authored by UVA molecular physiology and biological physics professor Wladek Minor is currently the world’s second-most cited scientific paper, according to The Scientist magazine. The paper, “Processing of X-ray Differentiation Data Collected in Oscillation Mode,” describes a software program that creates a 3-D image, or map, of human proteins. In providing a program that creates maps of specific proteins, Minor and his colleagues give those developing treatments for viruses and cancer the tools they need to design better drugs. “When people take a designed drug, 99 percent of the time it’s targeting a protein,” says Matt Zimmerman, a graduate student who works in Minor’s UVA lab.
