University of Arizona in the News

Nearly 800 University of Arizona students attended an event at Centennial Hall Tuesday night to listen to researchers and identical twins Lexi and Lindsay Kite speak about dismantling self-objectification and developing a positive body image that focuses on more than appearance. "Body positivity can be kind of problematic from the research perspective. When you're telling women to love their bodies ...

Scientific researchers have warned Elon Musk's Starlink system of low orbit satellites harms scientific research, creating light pollution they can mitigate but not eliminate. A University of Arizona team led by researcher Grace Halferty has developed a sensor that warns astronomers about particularly bright satellites, affording them time to avert their telescopes.

Operations at one of Spain's largest hydropower plants have been halted after its water levels receded below 23% capacity due to drought-like conditions, foreshadowing the future of the rapidly receding Lake Mead, which itself is only around 27% of usual capacity. "We are dangerously close to hitting the 950-foot elevation at Lake Mead needed to turn the turbines and generate electricity.

An expansive use of ballot measures to advance policy versus efforts to undermine the initiative process could be found on ballots throughout the country. This includes Arizona, where advocates didn't see any viable option for addressing medical debt. "There is no pressure from the industry to act and a legislature captured by business interests was not going to tackle this issue," said University of Arizona associate professor of public health Dr. Joe Gerald, a health services researcher.

The University of Arizona came in tied for No. 7 on U.S. News & World Report's list of the best online bachelor's programs in the U.S., released Jan. 25. The magazine's editors rank 381 schools, based on four factors: engagement, services and technologies, faculty credentials and training, and expert opinion.

The OSIRIS-REx NASA mission, which is spearheaded by scientists at the University of Arizona's Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, made history in 2020 when it successfully touched down on an asteroid named Bennu and collected a sample of rock to bring back to Earth for study. Now the spacecraft is being prepared for a second mission: to the near-Earth asteroid named Apophis. The extended mission has a new name, OSIRIS-APEX, and a new principal investigator, Dani DellaGiustina, who started out on the OSIRIS missions as an undergraduate at the University of Arizona.

Torivio Fodder, Indigenous governance program manager and professor of practice at the University of Arizona, writes that whether a person or a group of people is Indigenous comes down to where their ancestors lived and how long they lived there.

Sonoran Desert toads secrete a psychedelic toxin called 5-MeO-DMT that is strong enough to kill a full-grown dog. But many people catch the amphibians to use 5-MeO-DMT for medical or recreational use, something that could have disastrous effects for the species. But Robert Villa, a researcher at the University of Arizona Desert Laboratory and president of the Tucson Herpetological Society, said the toads only secrete toxins in stressful, violent contexts. "(Ultimately,) people are self-medicating at the expense of another creature," he said.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday will hear arguments about the constitutionality of The Indian Child Welfare Act, which governs foster care and adoptions involving Native American children, prioritizing placing them with relatives, fellow tribal members or in other Native homes. Passed in 1978, the philosophy behind the ICWA has come to be known as the "gold standard" in child welfare practices nationally.

The University of Arizona Health Sciences Center for Advanced Molecular and Immunological Therapies received $150 million in new state funding for the center planned for the Bioscience Core in downtown Phoenix. At the same time, CAMI received its first private philanthropic support as part of a new $10 million gift from the Steele Foundation. CAMI will support research to catalyze the next generation of precision health care treatments and serve as a hub to advance knowledge of the immunology of cancers, autoimmune conditions and infectious diseases.