Eberly News

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

The Native American Studies Program at West Virginia University welcomes the public to its 26th anniversary of the Peace Tree Ceremony on Tuesday, Oct. 30 at 11:30 a.m. at the Peace Tree, located between Martin and Elizabeth Moore halls. The Mountainlair ballrooms will serve as a rain location for the ceremony.

WVU Native American Studies Program to host 26th anniversary of the Peace Tree Ceremony Oct. 30

Eberly News /

The Native American Studies Program at West Virginia University welcomes the public to its 26th anniversary of the Peace Tree Ceremony on Tuesday, Oct. 30 at 11:30 a.m. at the Peace Tree, located between Martin and Elizabeth Moore halls. The Mountainlair ballrooms will serve as a rain location for the ceremony.

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.”

A team of West Virginia University researchers are investigating the impact of the Clean Air Act on soil and tree growth in the eastern U.S. Soil plays a major role in a healthy climate. As the largest reservoir of carbon on land, soil can directly affect the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. When more nitrogen is concentrated in soil, the amount of carbon that soil can store tends to increase, which reduces carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. In this way, forests can help mitigate rising atmospheric carbon dioxide. Past research also shows that this greater soil nitrogen in forests may help increase tree growth. Researchers from WVU’s Eberly College of Arts and Sciences and Davis College of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Design have teamed up with collaborators at Lawrence Livermore National Lab to predict the future of these effects on Earth’s ecosystem and understand why soil under some tree species gain more carbon in response to nitrogen deposition than others.

WVU researchers linking Clean Air Act to soil composition

Eberly News /

A team of West Virginia University researchers are investigating the impact of the Clean Air Act on soil and tree growth in the eastern U.S.  

Gay Stewart

WVU physics professor awarded 2019 Hans Christian Oersted Medal

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A  West Virginia University professor joins the ranks of luminaries Carl Sagan, Richard Feynman and Nobel laureates as the recipient of the prestigious Hans Christian Oersted Medal from the American Association of Physics Teachers. 

West Virginia University continues to be part of a multimillion dollar effort across a 10-university alliance to support STEM education for underrepresented students in Appalachia. Funded for a third phase by a five-year, $3.5 million National Science Foundation grant beginning fall 2018, the Kentucky-West Virginia Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation will examine underrepresented students’ perceptions of science, technology, engineering and mathematics disciplines and careers and work to improve recruitment, retention and graduation rates of these students.

WVU part of 10-university alliance improving diversity in STEM

Eberly News /

West Virginia University continues to be part of a multimillion dollar effort across a 10-university alliance to support STEM education for underrepresented students in Appalachia.