University of Arizona in the News

Moderna says a new version of its vaccine appears to provide strong protection against the omicron variant. They haven't released detailed data that other scientists have been able to verify. Some say the results appear to be very exciting, assuming the company's claims hold up under further scrutiny. "It sure sounds like the omicron-updated vaccine is working, which is very good news," said University of Arizona professor of immunobiology Deepta Bhattacharya.

Moderna says a new version of its vaccine appears to provide strong protection against the omicron variant. They haven't released detailed data that other scientists have been able to verify. Some say the results appear to be very exciting, assuming the company's claims hold up under further scrutiny. "It sure sounds like the omicron-updated vaccine is working, which is very good news," said University of Arizona professor of immunobiology Deepta Bhattacharya.

When Willem de Kooning's "Woman-Ochre" went on display at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles on Tuesday, it was the first time the famous painting had been publicly exhibited since it was brazenly cut from its frame at the University of Arizona Museum of Art by a pair of thieves more than three decades ago. Now, after almost three years of painstaking work by Getty conservators, the damaged de Kooning has been restored and will be on display at the Getty until Aug. 28.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta examines gun violence in the U.S. and the physical toll firearms may take on the human body. University of Arizona professor of surgery Dr. Bellal Joseph helped treat nine of the survivors of the mass shooting that targeted U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords back in 2011. "I can tell you from our own data, but also from a national perspective, there's no doubt that ... every trauma center in the country is seeing unprecedented numbers of trauma," he said. "Mass shootings are more prevalent at trauma centers than people actually think.

When Willem de Kooning's "Woman-Ochre" went on display at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles on Tuesday, it was the first time the famous painting had been publicly exhibited since it was brazenly cut from its frame at the University of Arizona Museum of Art by a pair of thieves more than three decades ago. Now, after almost three years of painstaking work by Getty conservators, the damaged de Kooning has been restored and will be on display at the Getty until Aug. 28.

A growing population of women have bought guns over the last two years, a spike analysts attribute to a growing sense of political and social upheaval since the beginning of the pandemic. University of Arizona associate professor of sociology Jennifer Carlson, who researches the place guns have in American life, believes if more women continue to become gun owners, it could have a "huge impact" on what the gun rights platform will look like. "Really everybody who studies this issue is at the edge of their seats," Carlson said.

Watching the skies for large asteroids that could pose a hazard to Earth is a global endeavor. So, to test their operational readiness, the international planetary defense community will sometimes use a real asteroid's close approach as a mock encounter with a "new" potentially hazardous asteroid. The lessons learned could limit, or even prevent, global devastation should the scenario play out for real in the future.

Willem de Kooning's "Woman-Ochre" was stolen from the University of Arizona Museum of Art in 1985. It has since been recovered and restored at at the J. Paul Getty Museum and the Getty Conservation Institute in Los Angeles. The oil on canvas will go on display at the Getty before returning to the University of Arizona Museum of Art in October.

Travel writer Pam Fieber writes about her recent trip to Tucson and singles out the University of Arizona Alfie Norville Gem & Mineral Museum. "One surprise was the recently opened gem museum, located in the Pima County Courthouse in Tucson. Expecting rows of turquoise? No. There are full-on boulder-sized meteorites, geodes and a bit of a history of the universe going on here, through the stories of rocks and minerals," Fieber writes.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is analyzing more than 100 deaths that could be attributed to "long COVID" by looking at death certificates from across the country over the last two years, according to two people familiar with the matter. "There is a significant underdetection of long COVID," said Sairam Parthasarathy, chief of the pulmonary division at the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Tucson and one of the leads on its long COVID study. "It ties into health literacy ... of someone being aware that they have a medical problem.