University of Arizona in the News

The Wall Street Journal Monday
For COVID-19 vaccine doses, should there be more time between shots?

Two-dose vaccines are typically spaced months and sometimes years apart to provide long-lasting protection from disease. As children begin to get their COVID-19 shots, emerging research in adults suggests that waiting longer between doses could have similar benefits. The first COVID-19 shot generates memory B cells, which help fight infection. Over time, the stronger memory B cells survive while the weaker ones die, notes Deepta Bhattacharya, a professor of immunobiology at the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Tucson. A second shot bolsters that protection; if it happens later in the process, when the weaker cells have died, the shot will boost a stronger set of cells.
Forbes Monday
This mouth-watering exhibit shows why our craving for food art is insatiable

The University of Arizona Museum of Art unveiled an art exhibit that's good enough to eat. Fitting for Tucson, the first UNESCO City of Gastronomy in the United States, "The Art of Food: From the Collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and His Family Foundation" opened at the museum on Oct. 24 and run through March 20, 2022.
The Washington Post Nov. 28, 2021
A changing climate is buckling concrete and flooding roads. States are moving slowly to guard the nation’s infrastructure.

Responding to increasingly common extreme weather is a vast undertaking that many state transportation departments are only beginning to tackle. Until recently, a widely used planning tool for road-building relied on climate data recorded from the 1960s to the 1990s. A study by a team of researchers at the University of Arizona and another institution compared that climate record with data through 2014, concluding that higher summer temperatures mean many states should be changing their formulation of asphalt in some locations to avoid premature road failures.
CBS News Nov. 28, 2021
The oldest trees on Earth

This story focusing on the science of dating tree rings – dendrochronology – and its value to climate research quotes Matt Salzer, a dendrochronologist at the University of Arizona's Laboratory of Tree Ring Research: "Each annual tree ring is like a time capsule of the environment for that year from which it was formed. And it contains many different types of information – chemical information, the information on growth, climate information." University of Arizona professor Charlotte Pearson is also quoted: "If you're trying to look at people in the past through time, tree rings give you a way to do it in a way that makes sense in a human life scale. It blew my mind that trees on the other side of the world could possibly be used to date this thing to within a single year."
The New York Times Nov. 28, 2021
As U.S. hunts for Chinese spies, university scientists warn of backlash

A recent study conducted by the University of Arizona and the Committee of 100, an organization of prominent Chinese Americans, surveyed scientists of both Chinese and non-Chinese descent working at academic institutions in the United States on issues of race and ethnicity in science and research. Around half of the Chinese scientists surveyed – including some American citizens – said they felt they were being surveilled by the U.S. government.
NBC News Nov. 27, 2021
COVID vaccine resistance is nothing new. Anti-vaxxers are as old as vaxxing itself.

More Americans are getting the COVID-19 vaccine, but a recent study in the Journal of the American Medical Association showed that 32% of people in the United States remain unlikely to get vaccinated against the virus. While the issue of vaccine resistance has taken on new urgency and is receiving many more headlines because of the pandemic, hesitancy about inoculations is nothing new. In fact, the sentiment is not only as old as the republic itself, but older. "Interestingly, the points anti-vaxxers made in the 1800s are not much different from points being made today," notes Elizabeth Jacobs, a professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at the University of Arizona.
The Washington Post Nov. 27, 2021
'You've got to prepare for the worst': World responds to new variant's arrival

The first inkling of a new, potentially fearsome threat arrived a few days ago. The latest variant of the coronavirus was on the move, the Biden administration was told. And, before long, evidence emerged that the variant – which would be dubbed omicron – carried worrisome mutations. "I haven't been one to panic about new variants, but this one looks like it might be the perfect storm," said Michael Worobey, an expert on viral epidemics from the University of Arizona.
New York Post Nov. 26, 2021
150,000-year-old beads found to be world's oldest form of jewelry

Shell beads recovered from a cave in western Morocco suggest humans' use of jewelry may go back much farther than previously thought. A study published in the journal Science Advances by a team of archaeologists led by University of Arizona professor Steven L. Kuhn estimates the beads to be between 142,000 and 150,000 years old.
Smithsonian Magazine Nov. 24, 2021
A chip off the Moon may be tailing Earth on its orbit around the Sun

A team led by University of Arizona planetary sciences researchers Ben Sharkey and associate professor Vishnu Reddy determined a near-Earth asteroid might actually be a fragment of the moon ejected into space during a meteor impact. First discovered in 2016, the quasi-satellite (a near-Earth asteroid that orbits the sun close to Earth) reflects light in a pattern that matches lunar surface minerals and lunar rocks collected during NASA's Apollo missions.
Modern Campus Nov. 24, 2021
Illumination Podcast: Episode 21: Redefining customer service with enrollment management

Traditional ways of attracting and enrolling students had been slowly evolving overtime, and then the pandemic hit. On this podcast episode, Kasey Urquidez, vice president for enrollment management and dean of undergraduate admission at the University of Arizona, talks about new approaches to enrollment management that meet the demands and expectations of modern learners.