University of Arizona in the News

University of Arizona associate professor of geosciences Jianjun Yin writes about two main ways climate change is affecting ocean levels and their threat to the world's coasts.

A sweeping survey of ancient settlements in Mexico led by University of Arizona archaeologist Takeshi Inomata offers new clues to pre-Columbian life in North America. "The main point of this study is the discovery of nearly 500 standardized complexes across a broad area, many of them having rectangular shapes," wrote Inomata. "Until three years ago, we had no idea about the presence of such complexes. They really force us to rethink what was happening during this period." 

"Agrivoltaics," or growing produce beneath panels, is especially promising in hot, arid regions, say experts who have planted cherry tomatoes and peppers beneath them at the University of Arizona’s Biosphere 2 laboratory. Large-scale agriculture requires mechanized planting and harvesting that might be difficult beneath panels.

Astronomers have discovered a structure thought to be a "protocluster" of galaxies on its way to developing into a galaxy supercluster. Observations show the protocluster, which is located 11 billion light-years from Earth, as it appeared when the universe was 3 billion years old, when stars were produced at higher rates in certain regions of the cosmos.

University of Arizona Laureate Professor of Astronomy Robert Kennicutt co-chaired the effort to produce the National Academies' latest Decadal Survey of the astronomy community. The report, used by Congress, NASA, the National Science Foundation and the Department of Energy to set national science policy, recommends combining the Giant Magellan Telescope and the Thirty Meter Telescope projects to create the first of a new generation of "extremely large" multibillion-dollar telescopes that would be bigger than any now on Earth or orbiting in space.

University of Arizona research professor Mary L. Rigdon, associate director of the Center for the Philosophy of Freedom, writes about her research showing women are more likely to take risks and engage in competitive activities if they’re allowed to share their potential winnings with peers.

University of Arizona researchers Shinzen Young and Jay Sanguinetti, co-directors of the Sonication Enhanced Mindful Awareness lab, have found beaming ultrasound pulses at a certain brain area, the basal ganglia, leads to a quieting of the ego – a less self-focused state of mind.

Chris Impey, a Distinguished Professor of Astronomy at the University of Arizona, writes that black holes are scary for three reasons: "If you fell into a black hole left over when a star died, you would be shredded. Also, the massive black holes seen at the center of all galaxies have insatiable appetites. And black holes are places where the laws of physics are obliterated," Impey writes.

New data on the COVID-19 pandemic find unvaccinated people who had recovered were five times more likely to test positive again than people who were recently fully vaccinated. Deepta Bhattacharya, a professor of immunology at the University of Arizona, cautioned that it can be very difficult to compare vaccine-induced immunity to infection-induced immunity. "What I would say is that these are maybe not the right terms of the debate," he said.

The University of Arizona Catalina Sky Survey last week detected an asteroid the size of a refrigerator as it passed within 1,800 miles of the southern hemisphere. "We think there are about 25,000 NEOs large enough to wipe out an area like Southern California," said Amy Mainzer, a professor at the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory who leads NASA's Near-Earth Object Surveyor mission, which is currently in the preliminary design phase. "Once they get bigger than about 450 feet in diameter, they can cause severe regional damage.