University of Arizona in the News

The College of Social and Behavioral Sciences and College of Agriculture and Life Sciences have teamed up with the University of Maryland and three Arizona nonprofits – Tucson City of Gastronomy, the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum and Local First Arizona – to form the Arizona Partnership for Climate-Smart Food Crops

Daffodils, violets and other flowers are arriving early in many gardens and fields this spring, shedding light on how plants are adapting to climate change. Observers report very early leaf outs of the common lilac in Pennsylvania, forsythia in Maine and American witch hazel in New York, said Theresa Crimmins, director of the USA National Phenology Network at the University of Arizona. "This year, a really mild winter has been followed by persistent warm temperatures," she said. "The earlier springs really stand out in places like New York City."

Fear of infection and strict hospital protocols during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic often meant victims of the virus had no family members with them as they passed away. Not being able to say goodbye, express love, gratitude or forgiveness, and not having the memory of seeing a loved one's physical decline and death, complicates the grieving process, said Mary-Frances O'Connor, a neuroscientist at the University of Arizona who studies how the brain reacts to grief.

This column points to the University of Arizona Libraries' website's inclusion of five core values as a good example of how to express an institution's guiding principles and explain its commitment to values-based practice.

University of Arizona professor of ecology and evolutionary biology Michael Worobey writes about the evidence that indicates the original epicenter of the COVID pandemic was a market in Wuhan, China.

Springtime arrived three weeks earlier than usual in several southeastern states this year. In the mid-Atlantic and northeast regions, it came nearly four weeks ahead of schedule. Areas of Texas, Arkansas, Ohio, Kentucky, Maryland, New Jersey and New York have seen the earliest signs of spring in 40 years, according to the USA National Phenology Network at the University of Arizona, which tracks the progression of spring by observing growth rates of leaf and flowers across the country.

University of Arizona students have created a satellite resembling a beach ball. The CatSat is a type of CubeSat – small low-cost, cube-shaped satellites that enable many universities to take part in space-based research. "The technology demonstrated by CatSat opens the door to the possibility of future lunar, planetary and deep-space missions using CubeSats," said University of Arizona professor of astronomy Chris Walker, who began the CatSat project.

Anxiety is the most common psychological disorder affecting adults in the United States. In older people, it's associated with considerable distress as well as ill health, diminished quality of life and elevated rates of disability. Some types of anxiety or anxious behaviors – notably, hoarding and fear of falling – are much more common in older adults, but questionnaires meant to identify anxiety don’t typically ask about those issues, said Dr. Jordan Karp, chair of the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Tucson.

Columnist Joanna Allhands applauds the creation of the University of Arizona Presidential Advisory Commission on the Future of Agriculture and Food Production in a Drying Climate, which seeks to help farmers statewide survive a hotter, drier future.

New research suggests barrages of cosmic radiation that cause Miyake events – observed spikes in the concentration of carbon-14 in tree rings – may originate from sources besides our sun. Tim Jull, a professor emeritus of geosciences at the University of Arizona who was not involved in the study, thinks one explanation for prolonged Miyake events might simply be tree physiology.