University of Arizona in the News

The brightest comet of the year, named "Leonard" after Gregory Leonard, the University of Arizona researcher who discovered it, paid one last visit to Earth's neighborhood this month, before leaving the solar system forever.

University of Arizona associate professor of anthropology Megan Carney co-authors this examination of the debate in Italy over that nation's citizenship law and how they address the rights of second generation immigrants and of the children who are born or raised in the country by foreign parents.

University of Arizona immunologist Deepta Bhattacharya discusses emerging data that suggest waiting longer than the currently recommended three weeks between doses of Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine strengthens the immune response in the long run and reduce the risk of side effects such as heart inflammation. "From an immunological standpoint, it makes more sense to wait," Bhattacharya said, adding that decision "was more about reducing public health and community transmission and getting the process done quickly."

Two long-time University of Arizona astronomers are awaiting the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope. The mission is designed to help scientists look deeper into the universe than ever before. Researchers George and Marcia Rieke talk about how they became involved in designing two of the experiments being carried by the spacecraft.

University of Arizona astronomer Amy Mainzer, the principal investigator for NASA’s Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer mission, discusses her role as technical advisor on the Netflix film "Don't Look Up" and explains the official protocols astronomers would follow should a hazardous space object, such as a comet or large asteroid, be detected.

More than four centuries after Galileo peered into the cucumber-thin lens, NASA is scheduled to launch the largest, most powerful, and most hotly anticipated telescope ever put into space. Billed as Hubble's scientific successor, James Webb will be able to track down light from the universe's infancy, which we know precious little about. "Even by ground-based telescope standards, it's a good-sized telescope," said Marcia Rieke of the University of Arizona's Steward Observatory, who has been on the working group for the Webb project since the late 1990s.

Holidays are never quite the same after someone we love dies. Even small aspects of a birthday or a Christmas celebration – an empty seat at the dinner table, one less gift to buy or make – can serve as jarring reminders of how our lives have been forever changed. "Grief is a universal experience and when we can connect, it is better," said University of Arizona associate professor of psychology Mary-Frances O'Connor, a clinical psychologist who studies what happens in our brains when we experience grief.

Evan MacLean, director of the Arizona Canine Cognition Center at the University of Arizona, took part in a Reddit “Ask Me Anything” event to answer questions about canine intelligence and how cognition evolves.

Thomas Korankye, an assistant professor of personal and family financial planning at the University of Arizona, writes that when taking out a student loan for one's child, the risk is even higher that the loan could be associated with lower financial well-being.

A white Christmas seems to be slowly morphing from a reliable reality to a memory for large swaths of the United States in recent decades, according to an analysis of ground observation data led by University of Arizona atmospheric scientist Xubin Zeng. The data show From 1981 to 1990, on average, almost 47% of the country had snow on the ground on Christmas Day, with an average depth of 3.5 inches. From 2011 to 2020, Christmas snow cover was down to 38%, with an average depth of 2.7 inches.