University of Arizona in the News

Experts say this has been the deadliest year ever for migrants trying to cross the U.S.-Mexico border. More than 800 migrants have died border-wide in the fiscal year that ends this week. Drownings are part of the reason why. Hundreds more have perished from extreme heat in remote borderlands, or in the backs of tractor-trailers. "The border conditions are incredibly inhospitable, and they have been since the late '90s," said Robin Reineke, a professor of anthropology at the University of Arizona.

Global emissions of methane from existing gas infrastructure may be up to five times higher than had been believed, a new study has found. The oil industry practice of burning unwanted methane is less effective than previously assumed. Riley Duren, a research scientist at the University of Arizona, who was not involved in the study, said it shows inefficient flaring 'is a more systematic issue," adding "it's likely the case that combustion and flaring is less efficient than assumed."

Willem de Kooning's "Woman-Ochre" returned to the University of Arizona Museum of Art this month. The painting was recently restored after it was badly damaged during a theft more than 30 years ago. It will go on exhibit at the University of Arizona Museum of Art on Oct. 8. "Seeing it come back was this moment of relief and peace of mind," said the museum's interim director, Olivia Miller. "Everyone on campus is excited. Everyone at the Getty is excited.

The push for shorter work hours goes back more than a century. In 1830 in the U.S., when most people had farms, seven days a week was a norm. As manufacturing began to grow in the latter half of the 19th century, unions and states began to push for shorter hours. Companies often ignored such efforts, so progressives concentrated on children and, in the 1900s, young unmarried women in factories, who legislators feared might be harmed by such long hours, according to University of Arizona professor of economics Price Fishback.

University of Arizona President Robert C. Robbins discusses the state of Arizona Athletics.

In May, the James Webb Space Telescope beamed back test pictures of a neighboring satellite galaxy, and the results far exceed the quality of images taken by NASA's previous infrared observatory, the Spitzer Space Telescope. "It's not until you actually see the kind of image that it delivers that you really internalize and go 'Wow!'" said the University of Arizona's Marcia Rieke, chief scientist for Webb's near-infrared camera. "Just think of what we're going to learn."

Plunging water levels in Lake Mead and Lake Powell could negatively affect millions of people. The former dropped to less than 150 feet from "dead pool" status – when the volume falls to a level so low that water cannot flow downstream from the dam. "The water levels are declining, and so the focus is really on how can there be either a mandatory or voluntary reduction in the amount of water that gets distributed," said Kathy Jacobs, director of the Center for Climate Adaptation Science and Solutions at the University of Arizona.

From 1966 to 1972, the Doris Duke Indian Oral History Program paid for anthropologists, historians and linguists at the University of Arizona and six other state universities to gather the stories and, in some cases, the fading languages, of Indigenous people across the United States.

A new study published this week in the journal Nature finds a vaccine strategy involving formulation changes, an initial escalating dose, and a longer wait for booster immunization results in more effective antibody production against HIV in rhesus monkeys. There are still many steps to be taken before this can be translated into HIV treatment for humans, said Elizabeth Connick, who studies HIV pathogenesis and cure strategies at the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Tucson.

NASA's DART spacecraft will smash into Asteroid Dimorphos today – a first test of a proposed system that would deflect asteroids that might hit Earth. "The most important thing to keep in mind about any of these deflection techniques is they rely on having enough time to work," said University of Arizona professor of planetary sciences Amy Mainzer. "The key is finding objects well ahead of any potential impact."