University of Arizona in the News

As climate change amplifies extreme weather events around the world, the Viennese defense system built in the 1970s and ’80s can protect the city from even a 10,000-year flood. Analysis led by researchers at the University of Arizona that finds the global population at risk of disastrous flooding has risen by as much as a quarter in the last decade.

This bread of the dead – similar in texture to challah and sprinkled with sugar or sesame seeds – is a staple of the Mexican holiday Día de los Muertos, or the Day of the Dead. The celebration on Nov. 1-2 aims to reunite the souls of the dead with the living. People eat the bread with their families, but it is also an essential offering on home altars, or ofrendas.

The U.S. government's search for spies in laboratories and businesses has stoked fear among scientists of Chinese descent and damaged collaborations with researchers in China, according to a survey of nearly 2,000 scientists. "There was a lot of broad speculation about this idea," says Jenny Lee, a social scientist at the University of Arizona, who studies research collaborations and geopolitics. Lee is one of the co-authors of the survey and related report. "What we wanted to do was actually seek out the evidence."

University of Arizona Distinguished Professor of Astronomy Chris Impey writes about the potential of the soon-to-be-launched James Webb Space Telescope.

Turning your camera off during virtual meetings can help reduce "Zoom fatigue," suggests new research by Allison Gabriel, McClelland Professor of Management and Organizations and University Distinguished Scholar in the University of Arizona Eller College of Management.

Federal scientists estimated that more than 40% of children aged 5 to 11 had been infected with the coronavirus by June 2020. University of Arizona immunologist Deepta Bhattacharya cautioned that studies based on blood samples at clinics or by recruiting volunteers notoriously overestimate how many people have been infected. "If you're not careful about doing a random sample, then the seroprevalence numbers can get pretty wacky," said Bhattacharya.

A possible canine vaccine for Valley fever took one giant step closer to becoming a reality thanks to a University of Arizona College of Medicine – Tucson-led study that showed the vaccine provided a high level of protection against Coccidioides posadasii, a fungus that causes Valley fever. The development of a potential canine vaccine serves as a positive harbinger of a human vaccine.

NASA's Lucy spacecraft was launched to gather data on asteroids near Jupiter. University of Arizona planetary scientist Alessondra Springmann discusses the experience of trying to observe asteroids from Earth when they briefly pass in front of a distant star. "If you have enough of these telescopes spread out over a large-enough area you can actually get a silhouette of the asteroid by tracking how long it takes for the star to dim," said Springmann.

Juno's latest results gauge the depths of Jupiter's violent storms, including its Great Red Spot – a vortex wider than the Earth that has been violently churning for hundreds of years. "This suggests that the driving mechanism of the Great Red Spot is different from other vortices," said University of Arizona planetary scientist Tommi Koskinen, who is not involved in the mission.

Every 16 hours somewhere in the U.S., a woman is fatally shot by a current or former intimate partner. The numbers have been soaring: gun homicides by intimate partners jumped 58% over the last decade, according to never-before-published FBI data. Nothing in Arizona law prohibits someone convicted of a domestic violence misdemeanor from possessing a firearm once they complete probation.