Eberly News

Tagged with Research
Pesky, yet dangerous ticks are no longer latching exclusively onto hunters and outdoor enthusiasts. Milder winters and disrupted habitats have driven them out of the woods, with Lyme disease cases in the United States tripling since the late 1990s. Now researchers at West Virginia University are working toward a vaccine that prevents humans from contracting the tick-borne illness that afflicts more than 300,000 Americans a year.

Ticked off

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Pesky, yet dangerous ticks are no longer latching exclusively onto hunters and outdoor enthusiasts. Milder winters and disrupted habitats have driven them out of the woods, with Lyme disease cases in the United States tripling since the late 1990s. Now researchers at WVU are working toward a vaccine that prevents humans from contracting the tick-borne illness that afflicts more than 300,000 Americans a year.

Just as nerve cells don’t work in isolation when we think, speak or move, scientists don’t work alone when they study the nervous system. A new center at West Virginia University—the Center for Foundational Neuroscience Research and Education—will help researchers from different departments collaborate in a similar way. By teaming up, the researchers will use their unique skillsets and backgrounds to make neuroscience discoveries that might take much longer otherwise.

New center for neuroscience research brings together faculty, students across WVU

Eberly News /

Just as nerve cells don’t work in isolation when we think, speak or move, scientists don’t work alone when they study the nervous system. WVU's new Center for Foundational Neuroscience Research and Education will help researchers from different departments collaborate in a similar way. By teaming up, the researchers will use their unique skillsets and backgrounds to make neuroscience discoveries that might take much longer otherwise.

A West Virginia University physicist has created an exact mathematical formula to explain the gravitational wave signals that have been observed from colliding black holes, which serve as a key validation of Albert Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity. While scientists usually interpret the signals from gravitational waves by comparing them to computer simulations, in 2019, Sean McWilliams offered a more accurate and efficient method for the calculations and interpretations.

Uncovering the invisible universe

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Physicist Sean McWilliams has created an exact mathematical formula to explain the gravitational wave signals that have been observed from colliding black holes, which serve as a key validation of Albert Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity.

Experts agree that a solid math foundation opens doors for future possibilities, yet improvement in math outcomes has proven an elusive target for states across the country. Innovation is necessary, and the Mountain State is poised to lead the way. With the aid of a six-year, $3 million grant from the National Science Foundation to the West Virginia University College of Education and Human Services, educators and researchers will work together to improve math teaching and learning through developing teacher leaders in secondary schools (grades six through 12) across West Virginia.

New solutions in math teaching and learning

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Experts agree that a solid math foundation opens doors for future possibilities, yet improvement in math outcomes has proven an elusive target for states across the country. Innovation is necessary, and the Mountain State is poised to lead the way.

A new portal created at West Virginia University is increasing access to surface and groundwater water quality data from shale gas regions around the state to inform stakeholders about trends in water quality. The West Virginia Water Quality Impact Portal allows people to investigate water quality in shale gas regions of West Virginia. It contains data for more than 1.3 million surface and ground water samples from 14 counties where most Marcellus Shale gas development has occurred. Funded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the portal’s data was gathered from federal and state agencies, including the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection and U.S. Geological Survey Water Science Center, as well as local nonprofit organizations.

Quenching the need for water quality data in West Virginia

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A new portal created in the Department of Geology and Geography is increasing access to surface and groundwater water quality data from shale gas regions around the state to inform stakeholders about trends in water quality.

An important breakthrough in how we can understand dead star collisions and the expansion of the universe has been made by an international team that includes researchers with the Center for Gravitational Waves and Cosmology at West Virginia University. They have discovered an unusual pulsar – one of deep space’s magnetized spinning neutron-star ‘lighthouses’ that emits highly focused radio waves from its magnetic poles. The newly discovered pulsar (known as PSR J1913+1102) is part of a binary system – which means that it is locked in a fiercely tight orbit with another neutron star. The research has been published in Nature.

How colliding neutron stars could shed light on universal mysteries

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An important breakthrough in how we can understand dead star collisions and the expansion of the universe has been made by an international team that includes researchers from the Department of Physics and Astronomy.

Uncovering what drives the evolution of new animals is key for understanding the history of life on Earth. West Virginia University geologist James Lamsdell is embarking on this exploration as a recipient of the National Science Foundation’s CAREER award. One of those evolutionary drivers is how animals adapt to unfamiliar environments. In his new project, Lamsdell will use fossil records to study how arthropods, such as crustaceans and horseshoe crabs as well as extinct species like sea scorpions and trilobites, have adapted to new environments by changing the speed or timing of their development to reshape their adult forms. He will also examine whether these changes in their development alter the speed at which their evolution occurs.

The fossil detective

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Uncovering what drives the evolution of new animals is key for understanding the history of life on Earth. Geologist James Lamsdell is embarking on this exploration as a recipient of the National Science Foundation’s CAREER award.

Known for their brilliant colors and captivating scents, orchids are a favorite household plant. But many types of orchids are endangered due to constant threats from invasive species and habitat loss driven by climate change. Since few resources are available to protect these endangered species, one West Virginia University biology student is developing new ways to sustain them.

Love orchids? Thank their fungus.

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Since few resources are available to protect these orchids, one biology student is developing new ways to sustain them.

West Virginia University’s Duncan Lorimer might be the godfather of the fast radio burst, but a pair of international students has taken exploring these mysterious cosmic flashes to a new level. In 2007, Lorimer was credited for helping discover fast radio bursts - intense, unexplained pulses of energy, light years away, that pop for mere milliseconds. Ever since, only around 100 have been spotted. But astronomers knew there were more out there. One major obstacle to new discoveries came in the form of researchers having to manually read data plots, recorded by satellite imaging, for hours on end.

Signals from deep space

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West Virginia University’s  Duncan Lorimer might be the godfather of the fast radio burst, but a pair of international students has taken exploring these mysterious cosmic flashes to a new level.

Four years after the disastrous flooding in southern West Virginia, new research from West Virginia University’s Department of Geology and Geography highlights the role faith-based groups and other community organizations have played in the relief and recovery efforts. In summer 2017, Assistant Professors of Geography Jamie Shinn and Martina Angela Caretta in the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences interviewed 21 Greenbrier County residents and members of relief organizations to understand the lasting effects of flooding in their communities.

Finding renewal in the aftermath of floods

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Four years after the disastrous flooding in southern West Virginia, new research from the Department of Geology and Geography highlights the role faith-based groups and other community organizations have played in the relief and recovery efforts.