University of Arizona in the News

It is two decades since the publication of "Unequal Treatment," the first major report to point to longstanding systemic racism as the primary reason for the nation’s deeply entrenched health disparities and the social progress the authors hoped to spark remains spotty. "The data we selected (for the report) reminded me about what was missing," said Jennie Joe, a medical anthropologist and professor emerita of family and community medicine and interim director of the Wassaja Carlos Montezuma Center for Native American Health at the University of Arizona.

A study published in the journal Neurology shows people who do vigorous physical activities, such as jogging or playing competitive sports, in areas with higher air pollution may show less benefit from that exercise when it comes to certain markers of brain disease. Masking might help. Both surgical and N95 masks filter some unhealthy particulates, such as soot and other matter, said Melissa Furlong, an environmental epidemiologist at the University of Arizona and co-author of the two studies.

For decades, experts say, it was difficult to find consistent representation of Black families on broadcast television. As Netflix has developed its library of original series and films, along with acquiring properties from other networks, they have become a wonderful stop to find a variety of stories that appeal to any viewer.

Confusion surrounding the origins of a discarded rocket booster set to slam into the far side of the Moon March 4 illustrates just how hard it is to track space junk around Earth's only natural satellite. The U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory last week awarded a team led by University of Arizona assistant professor Vishnu Reddy of the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory $7.5 million to come up with better ways to track lunar space junk.

Sam Chambers, a researcher in University of Arizona Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health, argues against U.S. Customs and Border Protection's experiment using robotic dogs to patrol the international border with Mexico.

A new bill in Congress would eliminate a lucrative tax break professional sports teams routinely use to help fund new stadiums. A March 2020 study co-authored by University of Arizona researcher Austin J. Drukker published by the National Tax Journal estimated the federal government had lost $4.3 billion in revenue as a result of tax-exempt municipal bonds used for stadium construction since 2000.

Publicly traded companies headquartered in California have more than doubled the number of women to their boards in the three years since the state set gender quotas, growing to 1,959 in 2021 from 782 in 2018, according to research led by University of Arizona professors Ji Hoon Hwang and Kathleen Kahle, and colleagues from Clemson University.

Student journalist Susan Barnett writes that the University of Arizona has a one-of-a-kind approach to building its Indigenous community on campus. On every level, they are making an effort to meet Native Americans' needs – from students, to teachers, to higher-up positions and programs with focuses specifically on Native American students.

With an incredibly successful launch, deployment, and journey to its final destination now complete, NASA's James Webb Space Telescope is slated to begin science operations in mid-2022. In an exclusive "20 questions" interview with nine members of those teams, an insider's view of what awaits James Webb now awaits us all, too.

Scientists have spent the past few years deploying aircraft and satellites to untangle one of climate science's greatest mysteries: pinpointing exactly what's causing methane, a particularly powerful greenhouse gas, to rise so fast in the atmosphere. University of Arizona scientist Riley Duren likens the problem of rising methane to an unbalanced checkbook. "We have a general idea of methane emissions, particularly at a global scale.