Health, Science, Environment

Out of all possible locations in the United States, German seed company KWS chose St. Louis as the site of its North American headquarters. What made St. Louis stand out from the rest?

According to Donald Danforth Plant Science Center President James Carrington and COO Sam Fiorello, KWS was attracted to the St. Louis region because of its community spirit and because of the world-class research facilities available at the Bio-Research & Development Growth Park (BRDG Park) on the Danforth Center campus.

Gov. Jay Nixon signed an executive order on Wednesday, officially launching the development of a comprehensive state energy plan.

 Brian Gass is a bit different than many of the people he encounters hiking the Pacific Crest Trail. He spends a lot more time concerned with his skin. Gass has ichthyosis, a rare genetic skin disease that manifests itself as thickening or thinning of the skin, sometimes giving a scaly appearance or becoming very dry, flaky and itchy. For Gass, it requires copious amounts of lotion, long-sleeves, and frequent night-hiking to avoid the sun. Gass talked to St. Louis on the Air host Don Marsh earlier this week from Lake Tahoe.  

Organizers of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Center of St. Louis plan to open their doors in a new spot by by Jan. 1.

They're looking to buy their own building. The wish list includes a space four times the size of the approximately 2,000 square-foot location they were renting at 4337 Manchester Ave. in The Grove.

Missouri lawmakers are sounding off on proposed Environmental Protection Agency rules aimed at reducing carbon emissions.  

The proposed rules effectively provide individual states with options to reduce carbon emissions by 2030. These options include making facilities more energy efficient, investing in alternative energy sources like solar and wind power, or joining other states in “cap and trade” programs.

Final Report: For the Sake of All

At the end of May, the "For the Sake of All" research team published its final report on the health and well-being of African Americans in the St. Louis region, a multi-disciplinary study led by  Jason Purnell, an assistant professor with the Brown School of Social Work at Washington University in St. Louis.

Cutting carbon dioxide emissions from power plants would also reduce other types of air pollution, both here in Missouri and nationally.

That's according to a recent analysis by researchers at Harvard and Syracuse Universities.

Along with carbon dioxide, coal-fired power plants emit other pollutants, like sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides. Those in turn can contribute to forming particle pollution, ozone, and smog.

Missouri's Conservation Commission voted unanimously Friday to adopt a list of recommendations designed to prevent the spread of Chronic Wasting Disease, or CWD, from captive white tail deer to the wild population.

The recommendations primarily target privately owned fields, pens and reserves where trophy deer are raised to be hunted.  Mike Hubbard, chief of the Department of Conservation's (MDC) Resource Science Division, says the recommendations include banning the import of white tail deer, mule deer and their hybrids into Missouri.

Most people have heard about the undesirable side effects that chemotherapy has on the body of people suffering from cancer. There's balding, fatigue and loss of appetite, to name a few.

Until recently, however, chemotherapy’s effects on the brain weren’t widely recognized. The cognitive side effects – a  fuzzy memory and poor attention span – were usually dismissed by physicians, scientists and even some cancer patients.

The symptoms have a name: Post-chemotherapy cognitive impairment, or “chemobrain,” among those who suffer from it.

Saint Louis County is seeing an unusual spike in a bacterial disease that affects children in daycare centers.

The county has received 71 reports of shigellosis since the start of 2014 ― that’s compared to only a couple of cases in the same time period last year.

Dr. Faisal Khan, the St. Louis County Department of Health's director of communicable disease control, said the disease has obvious symptoms.