Health & Science

The federal Mine Safety and Health Administration is inevitably affected by the standoff in Washington. MSHA is partially open with less than half the staff.

A pink scarf that stretches more than 6,060 feet is draped across the inside of Tamarack and anyone is welcome to add a few more knitted feet. Knitters that contribute then fill out a card with a message.

“This is in memory of Telo of Richmond Hill, Georgia who passed away at a young age of 47 from cancer,” Deaner Will said. “Telo know I’m always thinking of you with much love and blessings; Linda Crawford from Middleburg Florida.”

Childhood obesity could be related to the absence of one particular hormone according to research presented this week during a conference in Huntington.

  Losing weight is as simple as having more self-control. At least that’s what some think. A new study though shows that maybe it’s not that simple, maybe obesity is tied to a hormone called Leptin. And when people don’t have enough of it in their system, their body tells them to eat more.

The federal government shutdown could possibly impact the upcoming Freedom’s Run marathon in the Eastern Panhandle if the shutdown is still going on at the end of next week. But the Marathon will continue regardless of whether the government’s closed.

This is the fifth year for the marathon and one of its main attractions is the route it takes through four national parks. Those parks are closed because of the federal government shutdown. But there is a contingency plan.

Imagine you’ve just spent the better part of 24 hours working your way through a canal so tight that your skull had to unhinge to allow you through. Now imagine before your eyes can adjust, the first thing you experience once you’re through is a slap and a mugging. You’d cry too, right? Well new practices are taking the newborn’s point of view more carefully into consideration and it’s changing the culture of delivery rooms, and perhaps the state as well.

After three failed attempts to get a bill passed that would make marijuana available to those who would benefit from its medicinal properties, Del. Mike Manypenny (D-Taylor) continues to press on.

Editor's note: Nobel-prize winning mathematician John Nash and his wife were killed in a traffic accident May 23, 2015. This profile from 2013 is part of our series, "Inspiring West Virginians."

New policy that that would cut in half the amount of permissible coal dust in underground mines is making its way through federal agencies in the form of proposed rule and regulation changes

The same stricter standards are proposed in legislation introduced this summer by Sen. Jay Rockefeller.

day in Bluefield to discuss the increasing cases of Back Lung disease, noting more than 2000 West Virginia miners have died of Black Lung over the last decade.

Federal Budget Cuts, EarthEcho education project and black lung roundtable

EarthEcho - West Virginia will be one of the states featured in a new education project created by EarthEcho International that focuses on in the Chesapeake Bay. EarthEcho is launching a new multi-year expedition program that will focus each year on an environmental problem.

Marshall University’s college of science is conducting an experiment that they hope will help them in the future.

The Marshall University College of Science installed a green roof in a small space just off the second floor of the science building. It’s the beginning of an experiment that will illustrate what it will take to maintain larger green roofs on the biotech building on campus. That building is being constructed. It’ll also play a role in Marshall’s continued effort to better handle storm water.

Chuck Somerville is the Dean of the College of Science.

A West Virginia-based pharmacy chain is hoping to combat the illegal manufacture of methamphetamine by stocking a tamper-resistant form of the drug used in its production.

Fruth Pharmacy, which has 27 locations in West Virginia and Ohio, announced it will begin stocking a drug called Nexafed. The tablet contains the active ingredient pseudoephedrine, similar to the popular brand-name allergy drug Sudafed.