Local Healthcare Sector Booms with Associate Degree Workers
Jobs that require only a two-year degree are the fastest growing in the healthcare sector. That’s especially true in the Baton Rouge area, according to the Brookings Institute. Roughly half of...
View ArticleWith Ban in Place, Smokers Migrate Off Campus
Louisiana's legislature passed a law in 2013 prompting all state colleges and universities to go tobacco-free by Aug. 1 of this year. It's been almost two months now since tobacco products have...
View ArticleAbortion Restriction on Hold in Louisiana, Shut Down Clinics in Texas
A requirement that doctors providing abortion have admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles has yet to take effect in Louisiana, while a legal challenge is pending.Texas started enforcing a...
View ArticleElective Early Deliveries a Thing of the Past
Almost every pregnant woman in Louisiana will now have to wait 39 weeks if they want to choose their baby's birthday and have it covered by insurance. The state's Medicaid program, which insures about...
View ArticleAlong with Better Traffic Flow, Better Healthcare Flow
Between Essen, Bluebonnet, Perkins and I-10 in Baton Rouge, there’s a whole bunch of health clinics and medical facilities – including Our Lady of the Lake Hospital, Baton Rouge General, The Baton...
View ArticleOn the Ballot: To Lock In or Lock Up Care for Elderly?
On Nov. 4, Louisiana voters are being asked — as they were in 2012 — to decide whether to protect nursing homes from future budget cuts.
View ArticleOn the Ballot: Tying Up Hospital Funding
Should Louisiana hospitals be guaranteed a set amount of state health care funding—if they put up part of the money themselves? That’s what Constitutional Amendment 2 on Tuesday’s ballot is asking...
View ArticleXavier University Wins Grant to Increase Diversity in Biomedical Research
Xavier university is looking to triple the number of their minority alumni who go on to receive PhDs in the life sciences in the next decade, with help from an NIH grant. The first obstacle is getting...
View ArticleMouth Guard Records When Players' Heads Rattle
To keep a better eye on head injuries in the past, the LSU football team has had concussion detectors installed in players’ helmets. This season, LSU became the first team in the NCAA to try high-tech...
View ArticlePremiums Go Up, So Might Enrollment
It’s that time of year — the open enrollment period for health plans.In the second year of insurance exchanges established by the Affordable Care Act, premiums in Louisiana, as elsewhere, will be...
View ArticleUnlikely Partnership Draws Attention to Gulf's Dead Zone
You wouldn’t think Indiana and Louisiana have much in common. But that hasn’t stopped the Indianapolis Zoo from developing a partnership with The Nature Conservancy in Louisiana. Their goal? To draw...
View ArticleNew Human Ancestor Raises Questions about genus Homo
On the corner of Dr. Juliet Brophy's desk is a skull fossil. "We have Australopithecus africanus, known as Mrs. Ples, that’s my favorite fossil. Everytime I see her I get all dressed up," she says.
View ArticleLIGO: Searching For What No One Has Seen Before
A few weeks ago in mid September, LIGO, the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory in Livingston Parish, began their science run. They began collecting data.
View ArticleLSU Genetics Lab Contributes to 1000 Genome Project
When you think "mutant," you probably think of Magneto from the X-Men. But if you ask Dr. Mark Batzer, a biology professor at LSU, he might start talking about Barbara McClintock, who discovered...
View ArticleNew Rodent Discovery Another Piece in Evolutionary Puzzle
Most people tend to avoid rats like the plague, but not so for Dr. Jake Esselstyn and his colleague Dr. Kevin Rowe. They not only pursue rats in the wild - they're discovering new species.
View ArticleWhat's the Best Way To Fix the LSU Lakes?
The LSU lakes are sick. They’re slowly filling with harmful nutrients and sediment, without an effective way to drain. “If we do nothing, they will become the swamps that they were,” says landscape...
View ArticleTurning Plants into Butanol at the Audubon Sugar Institute
Ethanol is by far the most commonly produced biofuel in the country. But it has some problems. For one, its only about two-thirds as efficient as gasoline. “Secondly,” says Dr. Donal Day, “ethanol has...
View ArticleUsing Big Data to Make Political Campaigns Smarter
For many watchers of political races, it’s a numbers game. Dr. David Sathiaraj, Assistant Professor for Research in Geography and Anthropology at LSU, thinks there’s a better way to crack those numbers.
View ArticleLocal doctor invents plantar fasciitis-fighting flip flop
Plantar fasciitis is a common problem – about one in ten people have the sharp pain under their heel that’s caused by small tears in the plantar fascia, which is "a really strong, thin piece of fascia,...
View ArticleLet It Snow
Louisiana isn't exactly known for its white winters. " We don’t get a lot of snow in north Louisiana," says state climatologist Barry Keim. "But we certainly get significantly more than in south...
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