University of Arizona in the News

Drought linked to climate change, along with overgrazing, is destroying the agave plants on which the Mexican long-nosed bat depends. This story reporting on a new initiative trying to restore the balance between the agaves, the bats that feed on them, and people cites a 2016 paper co-authored by Gary Paul Nabhan of the University of Arizona Southwest Center that concluded conservation biologists have inadvertently hampered public concern by viewing conservation as an attempt "to simply avert extinction and foster recovery of single imperiled species."

The moon is top of mind for many national space programs and private companies, with some planning to send humans back to the lunar surface as early as 2025. In advance, scientists are launching satellites and other payloads to orbit the moon. But so far, no one has kept track of just how many artificial objects are already up there, or where they are at any given moment. The Air Force Research Laboratory's Space Vehicles Directorate has tasked University of Arizona researchers with getting a handle on this impending lunar traffic jam, awarding them $7.5 million in funding.

University of Arizona associate professor of geosciences Jianjun Yin writes that "(sea) levels are rising whether people are ready or not, and that will bring profound flood risks to large parts of the Gulf and Atlantic coasts and the U.S. economy."

Since the 1990s, a warming climate has shortened winters, extending the duration and expanding the reach of traditionally seasonal illnesses such as Lyme disease and Valley fever. University of Arizona climate scientist Andrew Comrie suspects that Valley fever is already quietly trekking north, as desert-like conditions spread up the Mountain West.

Communities of color bear a disproportionate burden from pollution, research shows. But using race to allocate federal help could result in legal problems. "The intention is to address some of these longstanding disparate harms," said Toni M. Massaro, a professor of constitutional law at the University of Arizona. Then comes the hard work of figuring out how to operationalize that, and a constraint that they have is that they must do so that is consistent with the case law. There's campaign talk and then there's write-the-law talk."

Researchers at the University of Arizona's Lunar and Planetary Laboratory confirm a hefty chunk of space junk expected to meet a fiery end on the far side of the Moon turns out to be a rocket booster from a Chinese mission in October 2014.

Craig Nazareth an assistant professor of practice of intelligence and information operations at the University of Arizona, writes that as the U.S. and other NATO member governments monitor Russia's activities and determine appropriate policy responses, social media, big data, smartphones and low-cost satellites have taken center stage.

Laura Brandimarte, an assistant professor of management information systems at the University of Arizona, writes that understanding the nature of privacy calls for a better understanding of its origins.

NASA's new space telescope captured its first starlight Feb. 11 and even took a selfie of its giant, gold mirror. All 18 segments of the primary mirror on the James Webb Space Telescope seem to be working properly six weeks into the mission, officials said Friday. The telescope's first target was a bright star 258 light-years away in the constellation Ursa Major.

Misha Harrison, executive director of experience with University of Arizona Marketing and Brand Management, appears as a guest to discuss the UArizona Wonder House at South by Southwest in Austin, Texas, next month and what story the university is telling about itself and Tucson at this global festival.