In her home overlooking Charleston, W.Va., and the Kanawha River, Robin Peck, a local foreign language teacher, pops the question: “Do you want to smell the water?”. She goes into the bathroom and turns both faucet knobs wide open. “Just wait for it,” she says. Sure enough, a pungent aroma fills the bathroom: black licorice with a hint of industrial chemicals, stifling and nauseating.

newly unearthed dinosaur has been called the “Texas longhorn” of its family tree, and it’s not hard to see why: Nasutoceratops titusi, a relative of the famous Triceratops, sported 3.5-foot-long horns, measured 15 feet long from nose to tail, and weighed 2.5 tons. But this fossil is significant for more than just its anatomy–the discovery of Nasutoceratops provides powerful evidence for a theory that may explain the astonishing diversity of dinosaurs in Western North America millions of years ago.

Unless you live under a rock, you’ve heard of PRISM, a vast digital surveillance program run by the National Security Agency that was recently revealed by a whistleblower. The NSA, part of the federal government, reportedly works in conjunction with corporations such as Google, Microsoft and Apple to share users’ information with federal authorities. But here’s the question: Can you actually keep your personal information private?

I’m in Morgantown’s infamous Sunnyside neighborhood, watching dozens of college-aged revelers cram into a house party. Dance music pulses from the front door as partygoers spill out onto the street, laughing and conversing with no regard for open container laws. Less than a month earlier, students and police clashed on this street following WVU’s win over Texas. Couches were burned, bottles were thrown and people were arrested in a celebratory riot, a persistent tradition at WVU. But is it really a tradition? Who burned the first couch, and how did it become a recognizable part of WVU culture?

On June 8 former South African president and cultural icon Nelson Mandela, 94, was hospitalized for a recurring lung infection. As his health remains “critical but stable,” questions arise about the cause of Mandela’s infections, which began when he contracted tuberculosis during his time as a political prisoner. One factor may be extremely relevant: Mandela’s advanced age.

For more than 16 years, Joe "The Hot Dog Man" Stone has sold hot dogs to the Morgantown community. Every weekend, patrons stop by his cart on the upper end of High Street, knowing "The Hot Dog Man" will always be there with cheap hotdogs. Or will he?

Earlier this month, former NSA employee Edward Snowden revealed the agency is collecting data on millions on Americans, from phone call durations to Facebook posts, all through a program codenamed PRISM. The resulting media backlash has revived the debates about internet privacy and government surveillance techniques, but questions remain: how is the National Security Agency taking in the data, and how much of a threat to our civil liberties does such data-collection efforts pose?

The West Virginia University Student Government Association called a special meeting Thursday to discuss the impeachment of election chair Josh Harrison.

A state-of-the-art radio telescope in southern West Virginia may lose funding, according to a report issued by the National Science Foundation. The Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope or "GBT," located in Pocahontas county, is the largest steerable, single-dish radio telescope in the world, and it is a highly demanded research tool for astronomers, physicists and students. At a construction cost of $95 million in 2000, the radio dish is larger than two football fields, weighs 16 million pounds and costs roughly $10 million per year to operate. The GBT also provides astronomers with 6,600 hours of "open-sky" observation time per year – meaning any individual with a compelling reason to use the telescope may do so. On August 14, a committee from the National Science Foundation, the GBT’s primary financial supporter, issued a report recommending the GBT be "fully divested" from the NSF’s funding portfolio within five years.

At every home Mountaineer football game, the West Virginia University marching band – known officially as "The Pride of West Virginia" – performs their unique halftime show for thousands of fans. But for this inaugural Big 12 season, The "Pride" might not be able to join the football team at away games.