University of Arizona in the News

Researchers at the University of Arizona Lunar and Planetary Laboratory report the discovery of tiny salt crystals that could only have formed in the presence of liquid water in a sample from a class of asteroid known to mostly lack water-bearing minerals. The discovery strongly suggests many of the solar system's asteroids may not be as dry as previously thought.

When the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft returns from its seven-year mission Sept. 24, the probe will drop off a canister holding about a cup of pebbles and dust from the surface of the near-Earth asteroid Bennu. About 200 scientists will receive portions of that material, some of the only pristine bits of primordial asteroid ever to reach Earth's surface, which mission managers hope will reveal the state of the solar system when it was first forming, and possibly whether amino acids and other chemical compounds important for biology were present.

The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft returns from its seven-year mission September 24 when the probe will drop off a canister holding about a cup of pebbles and dust from the surface of the near-Earth asteroid Bennu. About 200 scientists will receive portions of that material – some of the only pristine bits of primordial asteroid ever to reach Earth's surface – which mission managers hope will reveal the state of the solar system when it first formed, including which amino acids and other chemical compounds important for biology were present.

Poet and novelist Luis Alberto Urrea includes two works by University of Arizona Regents Professor of linguistics Ofelia Zepeda – "Ocean Power: Poems From the Desert" and "Where Clouds Are Formed" – on his recommended list of books to help readers understand The Borderlands, the region on either side of the international boundary between the U.S. and Mexico. He describes the 1999 MacArthur fellow as "a Tohono O’odham poet of such elegant and exact rhetoric, such integrity of culture and vision, that you miss her quiet genius at your own risk.

Poet and novelist Luis Alberto Urrea includes two works by University of Arizona Regents Professor of Linguistics Ofelia Zepeda – "Ocean Power: Poems From the Desert" and "Where Clouds Are Formed" – on his recommended reading list of books to help readers understand The Borderlands. He describes the 1999 MacArthur fellow as "a Tohono O'odham poet of such elegant and exact rhetoric, such integrity of culture and vision, that you miss her quiet genius at your own risk. She gave the songs of the Tohono O'odham back to the land."

These days, it's widely acknowledged that the five stages of grief described by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross in 1969 – denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance – were overhyped and misconstrued. They were based on interviews with people dying from terminal illness (not those grieving the death of a loved one) packaged into a theory that got refashioned in the public imagination.

Researchers at the University of Arizona Lunar and Planetary Laboratory report the discovery of tiny salt crystals which could only have formed in the presence of liquid water in a sample from a class of asteroid known to mostly lack water-bearing minerals. The discovery strongly suggests many of the solar system's asteroids may not be as dry as previously thought.

The Giant Magellan Telescope will be made from seven individual mirrors, each 27.6 feet in diameter. Six have already been cast at the University of Arizona's Richard F. Caris Mirror Lab. The seventh is planned for casting later this year.

Lawmakers, conference commissioners, NCAA President Charlie Baker, coaches and athletics directors attended The Future of College Athletics summit, hosted by the University of Arizona.

A survey of nearly 13,000 Icelanders pinpoints for the first time a genetic variant that shapes whether a person's voice sounds high. Large-scale genetic studies peering into human voices like this one are "sorely needed," says Julie Miller, a neuroscientist at the University of Arizona.