University of Arizona in the News

Antonio Bacelar da Silva, an assistant professor at the University of Arizona who studies, among other things, the relationship between culture and food, says plenty of historical examples illustrate how people's eating habits can be tied to the cultural, socioeconomic and political landscape.

While no scientific consensus exists on what the fabled "Star of Bethlehem" was, there is absolute agreement among astronomers that there is no chance the light which guided the Magi will make an appearance this week, debunking claims on social media. Thomas Fleming, an astronomy professor at the University of Arizona, said some astronomers believe the "Star of Bethlehem" was a conjunction of Mars, Jupiter and Venus. Conjunctions describe two or more astronomical objects that appear to be close to each other in the sky. The planets will be visible on Dec.

The University of Arizona 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. The three-year project, funded by over $4.7 million from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, will focus on promoting climate-smart food production practices and helping farmers reduce water consumption and carbon emissions.

The holidays are a time for joy and togetherness, but for many they can also spur feelings of loneliness. A 2017 AARP survey, for instance, found that 31% of adults aged 18 and older have felt lonely during the holidays. And the past few holiday seasons have been especially fraught: The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a global uptick in loneliness. "Loneliness and aloneness are not the same thing," said Kory Floyd, a professor of communication at the University of Arizona and the author of "The Loneliness Cure."

This roundup of previous winners of the architecture magazine's annual A+Award includes the University of Arizona Health Sciences Innovation Building, which won the 2022 Popular Choice Award: "Looming above the cityscape of Tucson, this landmark higher education building is enveloped in a dramatic glass and concrete exterior, punctuated by striking red cladding.

University of Arizona associate professor of marketing Caleb Warren, along with his collaborator, researcher Peter McGraw, have developed Benign Violation Theory to explain why inappropriate, even gory, subjects can be humorous in the right context. For people to find things funny, three boxes must be checked: A situation is a violation of society's mores, the situation is benign, and both happen simultaneously.

The Colorado River's dwindling reservoirs could be just two years away from "dead pool" levels – meaning they could no longer supply hydroelectric power. To avoid that possibility, officials from the seven Colorado River Basin states propose paying farmers between $100 and $400 per acre-foot of water conserved. Farmers and ranchers use about 80% of the Colorado River’s water. They also hold some of the most senior and entrenched legal rights to that water.

Originally built in 1936, the "Old Chemistry" building at the University of Arizona will feature seven collaborative classrooms ranging in size from 30 to 200 seats when it opens in the spring. "So much of the infrastructure in the renovated part of the Old Chemistry building is geared around understanding how students think, and then turning around and helping them to learn better if you will," said Craig Aspinwall, head of the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry.

A group of disabled astronauts-in-training from five different countries – Australia, Brazil, Germany, Spain and the U.S. – have completed a zero-gravity flight 25,000 feet above Earth to help understand how spacesuits and space vessels can be made more accessible. Last month, deaf members of the crew looked into the ease of using American Sign Language in zero gravity as part of a scuba diving experiment at the University of Arizona's Biosphere 2.

Over the last 160 years, bishops from the Catholic church have recognized 70 medical miracles connected to The Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes in southern France, which attracts more than 3 million pilgrims annually.  University of Arizona professor of medicine and psychology Esther Sternberg, research director at the Andrew Weil Center for Integrative Medicine, and two colleagues analyzed the reliability of the Lourdes medical records and published their findings in 2014 in the Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences.