Experts address health, environmental and regulatory concerns following Ohio train derailment

West Virginia University experts in fields ranging from law to health to water quality can provide insights into potential community effects near the East Palestine, Ohio, site of the Feb. 3 train derailment and subsequent chemical fire. Jesse Richardson with…

Enhanced Arsenic Detection in Water, Food, Soil

In Journal of Applied Physics, a team of scientists fabricate sensitive nanostructured silver surfaces to detect arsenic, even at very low concentrations. The sensors make use of surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy: As a molecule containing arsenic adheres to the surface, it’s hit with a laser and the arsenic compound scatters the laser light, creating an identifiable signature. The technique is a departure from existing methods, which are time-consuming, expensive, and not ideally suited to on-site field assays.