University of Arizona in the News

University of Arizona professor of astronomy Chris Impey writes about the challenges caused by increasing congestion in Earth's orbit by satellites and other objects and the burgeoning arms race countries, and corporations, use to protect those assets.

University of Arizona professor emeritus of geosciences Karl Flessa shares his view of Gov. Ducey's proposal to to protect the state's groundwater supply.

Don Dooley Unger, a graduate teaching associate in the Department of History at the University of Arizona, writes about the lasting influence of Rep. Morris K. Udall. To honor Udall's legacy, the University of Arizona's Udall Center for Studies in Public Policy, along with the Morris K. Udall and Stewart L. Udall Foundation, will be hosting a pair of events. The first event will be held in Tucson on April 28 at the ENR2 building. The second event will be at Washington, D.C., Center for Outreach & Collaboration.

This story reports on the growth of the entomophagy (or bug eating) industry, which in 2019 raked in more than $110 million in revenue worldwide. The most commonly cited reason for eating bugs (in populations that don't normally consume them) is that they are a more environmentally friendly alternative to eating meat and other types of animal-based products. Cattle generate 100 times more greenhouse gas than crickets for the same amount of protein and require more land and water in the process, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.

Few people make it through life without losing someone they love. University of Arizona psychology professor Mary-Frances O'Connor discusses how neuroscience can help us to better understand grief and resilience after loss, why grief is different from depression, effective therapy for grief, whether it's possible to experience grief over the death of a celebrity, and how to support people when they are grieving.

After traveling nearly one million miles, the James Webb Space Telescope arrived at its destination and is preparing to observe the cosmos. Webb will help determine the accuracy of an observation made by the Atacama Large Millimeter/sub-millimeter Array, or ALMA that dated a galaxy labeled HD1, to just 330 million years after the Big Bang. "If the redshift from ALMA can be confirmed, then this would indeed be a spectacular object," said Marcia Rieke of the University of Arizona, a principal investigator for the Webb telescope.

New content for the video game Age of Empires IV will allow players to earn college credit. The "University of Arizona Online Illuminated History Experience" accompanies the game's campaign mode. Students who are enrolled at the University of Arizona or Arizona Online can then get tested on their knowledge. Successful completion of this task will earn players one credit hour at UArizona.

Vertical farming is expected to grow to $9.7 billion worldwide by 2026, but it faces challenges, including high energy costs, technological limitations and the ability to scale. Agriculture in a controlled environment has been around since the 1970s, but according to University of Arizona professor of biosystems engineering Gene A. Giacomelli, what made moving indoors possible was a drop in price in LED lights, which plunged as much as 94% in 2015 from 2008.

Sharon Megdal, director of the water resources research center at the University of Arizona, discusses Gov. Doug Ducey's idea for a desalination project.

The J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles this June will unveil the results of an intensive conservation of Willem de Kooning's 1955 "Woman-Ochre," which was badly damaged during a brazen daytime heist at the University of Arizona Museum of Art in 1985. The painting was cut out of its frame, ripped from its backing and remained lost for more than 30 years. In 2019, UAMA sent it to the Getty, which takes on a limited number of pro-bono conservation projects. The restored work will be featured in Conserving de Kooning: Theft and Recovery at the Getty Center (June 7-Aug.