University of Arizona in the News

The Vatican Observatory has recently launched a campaign to promote dialogue between faith and science. Scientists and space industry leaders have come for a United Nations-sponsored conference on the ethics and peaceful uses of outer space. It cooperates with NASA on several space missions and it operates a modern telescope in partnership with the University of Arizona.

Fire crews were still putting out embers and hot spots Sunday of a massive blaze at a recycling yard that authorities say drew the largest response in the Phoenix Fire Department's history. Don Falk, a professor at the University of Arizona's School of Natural Resources and the Environment, said industrial fires involving materials that "do not occur in nature" can be concerning, but he said cardboard is a bit closer to plant fuels that spark wildfires.

Experts say the effects of drought and climate change are seen at Hoover Dam, which will soon hold the smallest amount of water since it was filled in the 1930s. Under the 1922 Colorado River Compact and subsequent agreements, the river has long been severely overallocated. As University of Arizona Regents Professor of Law Robert Glennon said, "there are more water rights than there is water."

Experts say vaccinations are proving to be just as effective in the real world as they were in clinical trials, while remaining highly protective against the more contagious variants spreading worldwide. Two recent studies found that immunity to the virus could last for years. "I was always optimistic," said Deepta Bhattacharya, an immunologist at the University of Arizona. "This was an acute virus; you get it and get over it." Viruses that cause chronic infections, like HIV and herpes, which the body doesn't clear, are much harder to vaccinate against.

A European robotics team won a grant to study how robots could 3D-print underground shelters on Mars. The project is very much in the conceptual phase, but the technologies to make it possible are coming along on Earth, says Jekan Thanga, a robotics researcher not involved with the Delft team who specializes in off-world technologies at the University of Arizona. But, he says, "doing it off-world is another challenge."

Dogs may have earned the title "man's best friend" because of how good they are at interacting with people. Those social skills may be present shortly after birth rather than learned, a new study by University of Arizona researchers suggests.

A new University of Arizona and NASA study has identified more than 1,700 large sources of methane in an oil field that spans Texas and New Mexico, with about half of them likely being malfunctioning equipment.

Sana Khan, a doctoral student at the University of Arizona's Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health and a vaccination site volunteer, was interviewed in March about what things look like on the ground at the university's high-capacity state vaccination site and what the one-year mark of the COVID-19 pandemic means to her.

Cactus experts are tracking an unprecedented outbreak of “side blooms” on saguaros across Southern Arizona this year. Ben Wilder, director of the University of Arizona’s Desert Laboratory, said last year was the driest on record in Tucson and he suspects this year’s strange bloom is a response to that.

A pandemic that has killed 3.5 million people globally is beginning to be publicly memorialized. "Memories change over time," said Susan Crane, a historian at the University of Arizona. "There may be other stories we want to tell ... that involve losses but also other events that haven’t happened yet."