Q&A: How would a Google data center in outer space work?
A UVA expert explains the tech giant’s satellite test plan and whether putting AI systems in space could ease environmental pressures on Earth.
Solutions Lab Puts UVA Students to Work on Real-World Environmental Challenges
UVA Environmental Institute launches the Energy and Infrastructure Solutions Lab, pairing undergraduates with partners like Elevance Health, Dominion Energy, and Glanris Biochar to tackle sustainability challenges. Interdisciplinary teams develop real-world solutions—from carbon storage community engagement to Sargassum seaweed conversion—receiving funding, mentorship, and specialized coursework before presenting business cases in spring 2027.
Clinic Helps Spur Hearing on Human Rights Impact of Data Centers
A recent hearing of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights examined the human rights impact of data centers, an effort that was made possible with help from the International Human Rights Law Clinic at the University of Virginia School of Law.
The Conversation: What Wendell Berry meant to Christian farmers going green
Wendell Berry, the Kentucky farmer-writer who died in 2026, deeply influenced Christian farmers transitioning to sustainable agriculture across the rural South and Midwest. An anthropologist’s research reveals how Berry validated these “ex-conventional” farmers’ faith-based environmental convictions, offering them a model for reconciling stewardship, science, and Christianity amid pushback from skeptical church communities and apocalyptic rhetoric.
Can AI Explain the Weather? UVA Researchers Develop New Way to Test AI-Generated Forecasts
A new UVA study introduces a massive dataset and evaluation tool to determine whether AI can accurately translate complex weather forecasts.
Your Thermostat Could Be Costing You More Than You Think
Extreme weather is straining the power grid, driven largely by residential heating and cooling habits. Darden professor Saed Alizamir analyzed granular smart thermostat data to reveal how automation and manual overrides affect energy use. His research suggests redesigning thermostats could cut costs, ease grid pressure, and help both consumers and the environment.
WHERE DISCOVERY HAPPENS
GET THE STORIES BEHIND THE RESEARCH
Receive updates about the discoveries, researchers, and ideas shaping our world — straight from UVA.
Drones take farming to new heights
UVA students and scientists joined NASA researchers at Morven Sustainability Lab to test technology that could help farmers protect the food we eat while using fewer resources.
The AI Race Is Moving to Space
UVA’s Peter Beling discusses why tech giants are eyeing space for AI data centers, driven by unlimited solar energy and SpaceX’s reusable rocket breakthroughs. He explores security risks like cosmic radiation and satellite attacks, the geopolitics of a space-based AI race, and why building trustworthy, resilient AI systems matters more than raw speed or capability.
Cheaper Path to Net-Zero Could Come at a Public Health Cost, Study Finds
A UVA-led study finds that the two paths to U.S. carbon neutrality by 2050 do about equally well for the climate but differ by trillions of dollars in cost and by thousands of lives.
There’s a Simple Solution to Fixing Climate Change, So Why Isn’t It Working?
Carbon taxes have long been promoted as one of the most effective ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. So why have they sparked political backlash around the world? In his new book, Why Carbon Taxes Failed, UVA sociologist Daniel Driscoll draws on research across 20 democracies to examine why climate policies succeed in some countries and falter in others and what that means for future efforts to reduce emissions.
Shore to Summit: UVA’s Field Research Stations
From the Eastern Shore to the Southern Appalachians, UVA operates four field research stations across Virginia’s ecologically diverse landscape. Morven Farm, Blandy Experimental Farm, Mountain Lake Biological Station, and the Coastal Research Center each serve as extensions of Grounds, offering unique environments where students, faculty, and researchers study ecology, sustainability, and the natural world.
When the water rises, UVA is helping communities prepare
VideoUVA researcher Majid Shafiee-Jood and his team are partnering with Wise County, Virginia decision makers to strengthen flood preparedness after Hurricane Helene’s devastation. By blending advanced predictive models with residents’ firsthand experiences, the initiative aims to help rural southwest Virginia communities better anticipate and withstand future floods and natural disasters.