University of Arizona in the News

A study released in March examined the increasing use of magnetic resonance imaging – which can reveal the brain's structure and activity – to try to find links between what is seen on an MRI and complicated psychological traits. But there are other ways to explore the connections between brain features and complex mental functions that don't require as many subjects.

This story reports about the discovery last summer of a rare mushroom – Entoloma occidentale variety metallicum – by Caitlin Dowd, a senior geology major at the University of Arizona and president of the campus MycoCats club. "I was poking around, trying to find something cool, and I saw this bright purple mushroom," Dowd said. "And I was, like, 'Oh my gosh, this is beautiful.'"

University of Arizona graduate researcher in wildlife conservation and management Ganesh Marin and a co-author write that maintaining two primary corridors of migration into the U.S. will be important to connecting currently fragmented habitats for jaguars and other mammals, such as black bears, pumas, ocelots and Mexican wolves. Increasing connectivity – linking small patches of habitat into larger networks – is a key strategy for conserving large animals that range over wide areas and for maintaining functional ecological communities.

Experts say innovative policies and a diverse scorpion population led Mexico develop more than a dozen antivenoms now used in the U.S. and elsewhere, potentially providing a model for other developing countries. Scientists in Mexico "always had a huge incentive to make lower-cost, safer antivenoms, because they had hundreds of thousands of people per year that were going to use them if they were safe enough," said Leslie Boyer, a venomologist at the University of Arizona, the state with America's highest per capita rate of envenomations.

A new study estimates 75 million pets in the U.S. will go without health care because of a need for nearly 41,000 additional veterinarians by 2030. This story reports on efforts nationwide to increase the number of veterinary professionals. It mentions Arizona lawmakers may vote to reduce veterinarian student debt to attract and retain new graduates from the University of Arizona College of Veterinary Medicine, the state's first public veterinary medical school.

A new poetry anthology has been published as part of a collaboration of the University of Arizona Poetry Center and Wick Poetry Center of Kent State University. "Dear Vaccine: Global Voices Speak to the Pandemic" seeks to illuminate how people around the world have experienced COVID-19.

Discovery and innovation are at the core of the University of Arizona College of Science. Carmala Garzione, a geologist who was named dean of the College of Science in March 2021, said one of the most remarkable characteristics of the college is that “every single program has its strengths in research, and most are highly ranked in terms of their curriculum. There’s not a single asset that isn’t a treasure.”

University of Arizona chemistry instructor Colleen Kelley developed a series of 10 comic books with graphic artist Mackenzie Reagan to teach chemistry to children between the ages of 8 to 12 in an engaging way.

This story recounts the 1985 theft of Woman-Ochre, by Willem de Kooning, from the University of Arizona Museum of Art and the making of the new documentary about the crime, "The Thief Collector." The film premiered at this year's South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas, where the filmmakers took part in a panel at the University of Arizona Wonder House.

This story and video feature report on the growth of esports – competitive computer gaming – at the University of Arizona, specifically the August 2021 opening of the UArizona Esports Arena in the Memorial Student Union and the launch of the university's esports program and varsity team in November. Arena operations manager Kevin Buchmiller, a 2019 graduate, helped lead the push to build the facility.