Two West Virginia University experts—one who lived through and wrote books about Hurricane Katrina— are available to talk about disaster vulnerability and resilience, as well as how communities fare when faced with long-term recovery.
The event will feature remarks by Pineville Mayor Mike Kodak, Wyoming County Economic Development Authority Executive Director Christy Laxton and representatives from Appalachian Power and WVU.
The award-winning novel focusses on a traveling symphony and Shakespeare troupe 20 years after a flu pandemic kills most of the world’s population. This is not a post-apocalyptic thriller, but a hopeful story about human connection, beauty and art.
WVU offers two events to address suicide prevention this week.
Cadets will conduct a 24-hour vigil in the quad in front of the WVU Main Library to commemorate the 17th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks on the United States. Shifts of Cadets will continually march around the library quad in memory of the events, which resulted in the Global War on Terrorism including Operations Enduring and Iraqi Freedom. In the past 18 years, dozens of WVU ROTC grads have served honorably overseas in support of these missions.
Parkinson’s disease has reached new notoriety in the last decade as celebrities have spoken up and stepped up to support research and reduce stigma. From everyone’s favorite former teen wolf, Michael J. Fox, to Alan Alda of M*A*S*H fame. And while the spotlight has helped to further the cause, there is still plenty of misinformation about the disease, which affects nearly 10 million people worldwide.
Are we alone? Humans have been asking this question throughout history. We want to know where we came from, how we fit into the cosmos and where we are going. We want to know whether there is life beyond the Earth and whether any of it is intelligent. Astronomer Jill Tarter of the SETI Institute will explore this cosmic perspective in a public lecture at West Virginia University. Copies of Tarter’s biography “Making Contact” by Sarah Scoles will be available for purchase and signing.
Healthcare professionals attending the largest pain management conference in the United States may learn a thing or two about treating pain the “West Virginia Way.” A pain management expert at the West Virginia University School of Pharmacy says it’s imperative that West Virginia has a place at the table in the national conversation about the intersection of the opioid crisis, pain management and substance-use disorder.
With Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court nomination hearing in full swing, Congress and the public are keeping a close eye on his qualifications and the confirmation process itself. A West Virginia University expert says federal judicial selection should focus on informing the American public. He can also discuss the possible outcomes if Kavanaugh is confirmed, including how the Supreme Court is likely to rule on abortion, the Affordable Care Act and campaign finance.
In a paper published today in Nature Communications, a worldwide team of researchers has used tree ring dating to confirm that two significant "cosmic events" occurred in 774 and 993 CE. Cross-cultural eyewitness accounts of red or "blood" aurora correspond with these years. The study measured carbon-14 content in 44 wood samples taken from five continents, including two samples from Mongolia provided by West Virginia University geographer Amy Hessl, a co-author on the paper.