Science, Health and Technology

Former astronaut Sally Ride passed away on Monday after a battle with pancreatic cancer.

The University of Missouri Health system has received $13.3 million in federal grant funding for a program that will combine high-tech and on-site primary-care initiatives in healthcare, according to a statement released by the university today.

The so-called LIGHT program is designed to create a specialized workforce in primary care as well as designing enhanced medical records to help patients and healthcare providers better manage care.

The technology component of the program involves a partnership between the Kansas City-based Cerner Corporation and MU.

Folks in the western Missouri city of Nevada are getting the chance to make examples of themselves when it comes to health and wellness.

The town is embarking on an initiative to improve the health of its citizens and the quality of health care they receive.

The Kansas City-based health care technology company Cerner is teaming up with local officials on the initiative. The city's hospital will spend $10 million on an electronic medical records system that will allow information to be shared with the town's two dozen doctors and medical experts in bigger cities.

Gov. Jay Nixon and University of Missouri president Tim Wolfe will join utility executives and business leaders at an event designed to boost support for building small modular nuclear reactors in the state.

The event Monday on the Columbia campus is billed as an economic development summit, while officials await word on a U.S. Department of Energy grant application.

Westinghouse Electric Co. and Ameren Missouri are competing for a share of the $452 million the energy department has set aside for the new technology.

Updated 1:20 p.m. August 1 with reopening of smelter

The Doe Run Peru smelter in La Oroya, which had been clsoed due to financial and environmental compliance issues since 2009, resumed zinc processing operations over the weekend.

Peru's Minister of Energy and Mines, Jorge Merino Tafur, is reported to have said that lead smelting would also resume in the not too distant future. Restarting copper production would likely take longer, since that would require building a plant to control sulfuric acid emissions.

Doe Run Peru is owned by the Renco Group, which also owns the St. Louis-based Doe Run Resources Corporation. The metal smelting companies in Missouri and Peru have operated independently since 2007.

On today’s show, we’ll have a look at cancer.