Eberly News

Tagged with Research
The world’s forests are on a fast food diet of carbon dioxide, which is currently causing them to grow faster. But a researcher at West Virginia University, along with an international team of scientists, finds evidence suggesting that forest growth may soon peak as the trees deplete nitrogen in the soil over longer growing seasons. West Virginia’s wildlands are a “canary in the coal mine for climate change” because of the forests’ biodiversity, which, along with rich soils and abundant rainfall, make them among the strongest forests globally, according to Brenden McNeil, an associate professor of geography at WVU’s Eberly College of Arts and Sciences. The state’s forests have been resilient to a barrage of logging and acid rain in the 19th and 20th centuries but are now exhibiting symptoms of declining health because of climate change.

New research suggests forests, like humans, require a balanced diet

Eberly News /

The world’s forests are on a fast food diet of carbon dioxide, which is currently causing them to grow faster. But a researcher at  West Virginia University, along with an international team of scientists, finds evidence suggesting that forest growth may soon peak as the trees deplete nitrogen in the soil over longer growing seasons. 

An unprecedented two scholars from West Virginia University have received the top fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Katherine Aaslestad and Tamba M’Bayo, both professors in the Department of History, will each receive $60,000 for the 2019-2020 academic year to conduct research for their respective book projects.

WVU history faculty earn prestigious NEH fellowships

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An unprecedented two scholars from West Virginia University have received the top fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Researchers from West Virginia University have received $1.34 million to develop machine-learning software for the U.S. Department of Energy. The researchers, James Lewis and Aldo Romero from the Department of Physics and Astronomy, will lead a team from WVU, University of Southern California and Kitware, Inc. to develop new machine-learning tools for advancing chemical and materials science discoveries on the nation’s future high-speed computing platforms.

WVU physicists awarded $1.34 million to develop machine-learning software

Eberly News /

Researchers from West Virginia University have received $1.34 million to develop machine-learning software for the U.S. Department of Energy.

WVU chemists find new frontier for pharmaceutical development

WVU chemists find new frontier for pharmaceutical development

Eberly News /

West Virginia University chemists have developed an experiment to improve the efficiency of creating new medicine. 

WVU researchers to study Fallout 76 gamers' perceptions of West Virginia

WVU researchers to study Fallout 76 gamers' perceptions of West Virginia

Eberly News /

Through the coming weeks, video gamers will be blasting away mutated monsters, exploring nuked country roads and rebuilding America, a noble duty that begins in virtual West Virginia. 

Wheeling, West Virginia, native London Orzolek will present her research on first-generation college students at the 117th Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association on Thursday, Nov. 15 in San Jose, California. Orzolek is a West Virginia University senior studying anthropology and women’s and gender studies with a minor in development studies. She is also the president and founder of the WVU Anthropology Club and a member of the Pi Beta Phi women’s fraternity, the honors society Order of Omega, anthropology honors society Lambda Alpha and the Sociology, Anthropology and Criminology Association, a WVU student organization. She sat down with us to discuss her research and plans for the future.

WVU anthropology student to present research at 117th Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association

Eberly News /

Wheeling, West Virginia, native London Orzolek will present her research on first-generation college students at the 117th Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association on Thursday, Nov. 15 in San Jose, California. Orzolek is a West Virginia University senior studying anthropology and women’s and gender studies with a minor in development studies. She is also the president and founder of the WVU Anthropology Club and a member of the Pi Beta Phi women’s fraternity, the honors society Order of Omega, anthropology honors society Lambda Alpha and the Sociology, Anthropology and Criminology Association, a WVU student organization. In celebration of National First-Generation College Student Day, she sat down with us to discuss her research and plans for the future. 

Prior to regulations, lead-infused paint covered the walls of American homes, leaded gasoline fueled cars and lead pipes carried water into glasses. Through these factors, Americans were in direct and regular contact with lead contamination. While the United States took precautions to help reform and prevent lead contamination in the 1970s, some countries around the world, such as Uruguay, didn’t take precautions until recent years. An economic crisis in the early 2000s resulted in Uruguayan families being forced from their homes. They often moved to “squatter settlements,” or informal housing located on precarious plots of land alongside river banks, in empty lots and even on old factory grounds.

Life without lead

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WVU anthropologist researches lead contamination in Uruguay

Video games and interactive media like the Fallout series and Fortnite, which is currently one of the nation’s most popular games, have interested Nick Bowman, associate professor in the Department of Communication Studies and a research associate of WVU’s Interaction Lab, for years. Growing up around interactive media such as video games, Bowman has been researching how people experience and interact with video games and other virtual environments.

Not ‘just for kids’: WVU communication studies professor researches the interactivity of video games

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WVU communication studies professor researches the interactivity of video games

Just as no two snowflakes are alike, a new study by Kristyn Lizbinski, a doctoral student studying biology at West Virginia University, reveals that neurons may be just as diverse. Neurons communicate via chemicals called neurotransmitters that can have different effects on the brain based on the receptor proteins expressed by other neurons. Neurotransmitters are often used to classify neuron types because each neurotransmitter can be thought of as a tool for communicating with other neurons.

Is every neuron a unique snowflake? WVU biology student studies organizing principles of neuron diversity

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WVU biology student studies organizing principles of neuron diversity

The MARIA Project, or Moral Agency in Robot-human InterActions, is funded by a three-year, $730,000 award from the U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research. In that project, Banks is investigating people’s ideas about machines’ moral agency, meaning the ability to consider right and wrong and act on that consideration. This study emerged from her extensive work on player-avatar relationships in video games.

Air Force funds WVU research on morality in human-robot interactions

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“The mediator between the head and the hands must be the heart,” says Maria, the working class advocate-turned machine in Fritz Lang’s 1927 film, “Metropolis.”