University of Arizona in the News

A recent study conducted by the University of Arizona and the Committee of 100, an organization of prominent Chinese Americans, surveyed scientists of both Chinese and non-Chinese descent working at academic institutions in the United States on issues of race and ethnicity in science and research. Around half of the Chinese scientists surveyed – including some American citizens – said they felt they were being surveilled by the U.S. government.

This story focusing on the science of dating tree rings – dendrochronology – and its value to climate research quotes Matt Salzer, a dendrochronologist at the University of Arizona's Laboratory of Tree Ring Research: "Each annual tree ring is like a time capsule of the environment for that year from which it was formed.

Responding to increasingly common extreme weather is a vast undertaking that many state transportation departments are only beginning to tackle. Until recently, a widely used planning tool for road-building relied on climate data recorded from the 1960s to the 1990s. A study by a team of researchers at the University of Arizona and another institution compared that climate record with data through 2014, concluding that higher summer temperatures mean many states should be changing their formulation of asphalt in some locations to avoid premature road failures.

The first inkling of a new, potentially fearsome threat arrived a few days ago. The latest variant of the coronavirus was on the move, the Biden administration was told. And, before long, evidence emerged that the variant – which would be dubbed omicron – carried worrisome mutations. "I haven't been one to panic about new variants, but this one looks like it might be the perfect storm," said Michael Worobey, an expert on viral epidemics from the University of Arizona.

More Americans are getting the COVID-19 vaccine, but a recent study in the Journal of the American Medical Association showed that 32% of people in the United States remain unlikely to get vaccinated against the virus. While the issue of vaccine resistance has taken on new urgency and is receiving many more headlines because of the pandemic, hesitancy about inoculations is nothing new. In fact, the sentiment is not only as old as the republic itself, but older.

Shell beads recovered from a cave in western Morocco suggest humans' use of jewelry may go back much farther than previously thought. A study published in the journal Science Advances by a team of archaeologists led by University of Arizona professor Steven L. Kuhn estimates the beads to be between 142,000 and 150,000 years old.

University of Arizona researchers Brian Mayer, Melissa A. Barnett, Mona Arora, and Sabrina V. Helm write that with the arrival of the fall and winter holidays, consumers are understandably desperate for a "normal" season. For many, that includes big family dinners and Black Friday shopping sprees. But many grocery store workers have experienced high rates of anxiety and depression during the pandemic.

Traditional ways of attracting and enrolling students had been slowly evolving overtime, and then the pandemic hit. On this podcast episode, Kasey Urquidez, vice president for enrollment management and dean of undergraduate admission at the University of Arizona, talks about new approaches to enrollment management that meet the demands and expectations of modern learners. 

A team led by University of Arizona planetary sciences researchers Ben Sharkey and associate professor Vishnu Reddy determined a near-Earth asteroid might actually be a fragment of the moon ejected into space during a meteor impact. First discovered in 2016, the quasi-satellite (a near-Earth asteroid that orbits the sun close to Earth) reflects light in a pattern that matches lunar surface minerals and lunar rocks collected during NASA's Apollo missions.

A team of University of Arizona researchers has developed an ultra-thin wireless device that grows to the surface of bone and could someday help physicians monitor bone health and healing over long periods. The devices, called osseosurface electronics, are described in a paper published in Nature Communications.