University of Arizona in the News

The New York Times Today
At least 140 drown in worst shipwreck of 2020, U.N. agency says

About 200 migrants were aboard a boat that caught fire and capsized on Saturday, hours after it had left Senegal for the Canary Islands, according to the International Organization for Migration. Benjamin N. Lawrance, a professor of history at the University of Arizona who has worked with West African migrants, said poverty and high unemployment have driven many people to leave West Africa for Europe, often in small fishing boats that are not seaworthy.
The New York Times Today
NASA's asteroid mission packs away its cargo. Next stop: Earth.

NASA's University of Arizona-led OSIRIS-REx mission has successfully stowed the spacecraft's Sample Return Capsule and its abundant sample of asteroid Bennu. On Oct. 28, the mission team sent commands to the spacecraft, instructing it to close the capsule – marking the end of one of the most challenging phases of the mission.
Arizona Daily Star Today
Ginny Clements, diagnosed at 15 with breast cancer, donates $8.5M to UA center

Ginny L. Clements, a breast cancer survivor and longtime supporter of the University of Arizona has given $8.5 million to the University of Arizona Cancer Center to strengthen the center's breast cancer patient care and research programs.
CBS News Today
What swing states tell us about the state of the U.S. economy

"There is still a lot of pain out there and a lot of people are unemployed," said George Hammond, an economist at the University of Arizona. "We're still more than 100,000 jobs below where we were a couple of months ago."
Quartz Today
Old sewers are becoming a modern COVID-19 watchdog

Cities and universities across the world are looking into using wastewater-based epidemiology to track the spread of COVID-19. Ian Pepper, director of the WEST Center and a BIO5 Institute member, is leading a study that uses municipal wastewater to monitor the incidence of the virus in communities across the United States. Charles Gerba, a professor of microbiology at the University of Arizona, is interviewed.
The Planetary Society Today
A deep dive into asteroid Bennu with Dante Lauretta

A week after collecting a sample from the near-Earth asteroid Bennu, NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft will stow the sample to protect it from leaking into space. Principal investigator Dante Lauretta is interviewed.
Buzzfeed Wednesday
Coronavirus cases are now rising in almost every state in the US

Experts say that unlike the COVID-19 spikes in the U.S. in the spring and summer, which hit hardest in the Northeast and the Sun Belt, respectively, the current surge is happening nationwide: COVID-19 cases are currently rising in almost every state. "What we're seeing right now is not only worrisome with such widespread transmission and high case counts," said Saskia Popescu, an epidemiologist at the University of Arizona and a member of the Federation of American Scientists' Coronavirus Task Force. "But with impending holidays, likely travel, and people moving indoors due to colder weather, I'm increasingly concerned that this will be a rather steep and long third wave."
PBS Nova Tuesday
NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft will stow asteroid Bennu sample early

A week after collecting a sample from the near-Earth asteroid Bennu, NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft will stow the sample to protect it from leaking into space.
Arizona Daily Star Monday
Grad's photo inspired one-of-a-kind Time magazine cover

A few months ago, University of Arizona alumna Victoria Yarnish used her iPhone to snap some photos of a coworker wearing a bandanna over her nose and mouth. That casual photo shoot became the inspiration for artwork now gracing the cover of the first-ever Time magazine issue in which its own logo is replaced with another word: VOTE.
Salon Monday
Coronavirus may dull the body's pain receptors, helping the unsuspecting spread it, study says

University of Arizona Heath Sciences researchers developed one of the most accurate COVID-19 antibody tests available and now have shown antibodies persist for months after infection, providing long-term immunity.