University of Arizona in the News

According to a paper published Sept. 23 in the journal Science, fossilzed footprints were pressed into the mud near an ancient lake at White Sands, New Mexico between 21,000 and 23,000 years ago, a time when many scientists think that massive ice sheets walled off human passage into North America. Unlike other pre-Clovis sites, there's no doubt humans left tracks at White Sands: "It's just screamingly obvious," says study author Vance Holliday, an archaeologist and geologist at the University of Arizona.

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.

A photo of a vaccine certificate has been shared hundreds of times in multiple posts on Facebook, Twitter and TikTok alongside a claim that it shows the "world's oldest vaccine certificate" that was issued in 1721 under the Ottoman Empire. However, the claim is false. Benjamin Fortna, professor of history and director of the School of Middle Eastern and North African Studies at the University of Arizona, said the year at the bottom of the certificate corresponds to 1906 in the Gregorian calendar.

According to a paper published today in the journal Science, now-fossilized footprints were pressed into mud near an ancient lake at White Sands, New Mexico, between 21,000 and 23,000 years ago, a time when many scientists think that massive ice sheets walled off human passage into North America. Unlike other pre-Clovis sites, there's no doubt humans left tracks at White Sands: "It's just screamingly obvious," says study author Vance Holliday, an archaeologist and geologist at the University of Arizona.

A new study led by University of Arizona postdoctoral fellow Matthew Osman provides insights into how the position and intensity of jet streams in the North Atlantic have changed over the last 1,250 years. The findings predict that by 2060, jet stream locations could move out of the range of natural variability under unabated greenhouse gas emissions, creating dramatic weather for societies on both sides of the Atlantic.

A study co-authored by professor Bryan Black from the University of Arizona Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research finds a stand of old-growth Douglas fir trees on Oregon's central coast survived some lean years following a tsunami spawned by the last major earthquake to strike the Pacific Northwest – a 9.0 in magnitude – in 1700.

University of Arizona causes inspired record-breaking support during the 2020-21 academic year, setting new benchmarks for overall giving and taking the endowment over $1 billion. Gifts and commitments reached $345.2 million. The previous high was in fiscal year 2019, when alumni and friends gave and pledged $334.6 million to support their areas of passion on campus.

Peculiar readings from geysers near the South Pole on Saturn's moon Enceladus have spurred researchers to probe the possibility that life might exist on the bizarre world in the outer solar system. In order to figure out why Enceladus was spewing methane, researchers at the University of Arizona and colleagues in France constructed mathematical models to calculate the probability that different natural processes might explain the Cassini data.

University of Arizona President Robert C. Robbins is fronting a delegation of University leaders in the nation's capital this week. The university is hosting a series of meetings on issues ranging from name, image and likeness rules for student-athletes to the development of data science. Robbins says the new Center for Outreach and Collaboration will put UArizona front and center amid national policy makers. "It also gives us an opportunity like we're doing all week to showcase some of the really exciting things the university is doing," said Robbins.

"Missing in Brooks County," a documentary by filmmakers and University of Arizona School of Theatre, Film & Television faculty Lisa Molomot and Jeff Bemiss, is reviewed.