University of Arizona in the News

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."

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.

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.

The spacecraft recorded a series of images of a target star that will be used to help its mirrors prepare for scientific research. Marcia Rieke, a professor of astronomy at the University of Arizona who led the team that built NIRCam, described the Webb team as "ecstatic."

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.

New research shows that hamsters and deer can pass COVID-19 to humans. "It is potentially concerning that something could end up in something like whitetail deer and evolve for, let's say, five or 10 years in that population, and then jump back into humans and have picked up a whole bunch of mutations that allow for escape from human immune responses, or some degree of escape," said Michael Worobey, head of the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Arizona.

The last two years of the pandemic, which prompted unprecedented transitions to remote work and schooling, have been checkered with cyberattacks against American colleges, with at least 26 ransomware cases in 2021. The University of Arizona has taken a particularly novel approach, by letting students interested in careers as ethical "white hat" hackers get course credit for practicing. UArizona director of cyber, intelligence, and information operations Jason Denno believes the program is replicable, but urges caution.

The City of Tucson's Santa Cruz River Heritage Project uses treated wastewater to restore the flow of water in the riverbed that runs just west of downtown. University of Arizona assistant professor of aquatic ecology Michael Bogan leads a team observing wildlife attracted by the water, something that occurred right away. "In most places because of either drought, climate change and drought that we're in or because of human water withdrawals from dams or diversions, most places are drying up. So most of what we study is what happens when the water goes away.