University of Arizona in the News

This story spotlighting the science of dendrochronology and its importance to understanding climate change prominently features the groundbreaking work and history of University of Arizona Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research. Interviews include Valerie Trouet, Distinguished Scholar of Dendrochronology; and Peter Brewer, curator of collections at the Tree-Ring Lab. "We're really sitting on this nexus between climatology, ecology, and then human history," Trouet said.

A privately funded telescope called Toliman will seek habitable worlds in Alpha Centauri, our nearest neighboring star system, potentially sparking a new wave of exoplanetary exploration. The scientific payoff could be tremendous given the relative proximity of that solar system to our own. "We have this unique opportunity to reveal if there is a 'habitable zone' planet in the system," says Olivier Guyon from the University of Arizona, part of the telescope's team. "This is something that has never been done before."

As eligibility for COVID-19 boosters widens in parts of the U.S., some people wonder when they should time their shots to maximize protection. It might make sense for healthy, non-elderly people to time a booster shot to a couple of weeks before a big event, such as an international trip or a wedding, said Deepta Bhattacharya, a professor of immunobiology at the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Tucson. But timing depends on the circumstances of your life and community.

The University of Arizona's School of Theatre, Film & Television was recently ranked No. 7 in the nation among public universities in The Wrap's sixth annual list of top 50 film schools.

Chris Impey, a University Distinguished Professor of Astronomy at the University of Arizona, writes about the fastest man-made objects and whether it is possible to travel at at least 1% the speed of light.

The University of Arizona women's basketball team raised the program's first Final Four banner at McKale Center on Nov. 15.

This story examining the increased use of agrivoltaics cites the research of University of Arizona professor of geography development and environment Greg Barron-Gafford, who found some crops grown underneath solar panels needed 50% less water. "Around the western U.S., water is the reason to go to war," Barron-Gafford said. "Water is the reason we have to have real big arguments about where we're going to get our food from in the future."

This story centers on the University of Arizona's "wide success in its vaccination efforts" particularly its "stalwart" distribution site, which was originally implemented as a Pima County vaccine clinic, but transitioned to a state-wide site. "A real challenge was converting course instruction to online modalities where it had been (originally) in the classroom," said Steve Holland, chief risk officer for the University of Arizona.

University of Arizona assistant professor of nursing Jessica Rainbow and adjunct instructor Claire Bethel offer five key takeaways from their studies of nursing during the COVID-19 pandemic.

A team led by University of Arizona planetary sciences researchers Ben Sharkey and associate professor Vishnu Reddy determined a near-Earth asteroid might actually be a fragment of the moon ejected into space during a meteor impact. First discovered in 2016, the quasi-satellite (a near-Earth asteroid that orbits the sun close to Earth) reflects light in a pattern that matches lunar surface minerals and lunar rocks collected during NASA's Apollo missions.