University of Arizona in the News

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.

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.

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.

The 14th annual Tucson Festival of Books brought an estimated 125,000 people to the University of Arizona campus over the weekend.

University of Arizona professor of psychology Matthias Mehl is the senior author of a new paper that finds extroverts in an office setting may thrive in an open seating layout, while introverts may do better in private spaces.

The University of Arizona Disability Resource Center helps find academic accommodations for around 4,000 students on campus. DRC associate director Dawn Hunziker said some of their more popular services for students include allowing extra time for taking exams, converting PDFs into Word documents to allow for better text-to-speech capabilities and providing ASL interpreters for deaf students.

A wet winter and hearty snowpack will somewhat ease drought concerns in parts of the drought-stricken western U.S. when summer comes. But many regions, such as the Colorado River Basin, have racked up such dramatic deficits that a single season can't forestall dire concerns about the water supply.

University of Arizona entomologist Justin Schmidt – known affectionately as the "King of Sting" – died Feb. 18 following a battle with Parkinson's disease. Schmidt is best known for allowing himself to be bitten or stung by creatures such as bees, wasps and ants to develop the Schmidt Pain Scale, the official rating scale for the pain inflicted by those stings.

Inspired by the breadcrumbs left by "Hansel and Gretel" of folklore, researchers at the University of Arizona have developed technology that would allow robots to explore subsurface environments on other worlds.