University of Arizona in the News

Jennifer Carlson, an associate professor in the School of Sociology in the University of Arizona College of Social and Behavioral Sciences, writes about common myths that surround gun ownership.

Experts say side effects from COVID-19 vaccines won't last long and they are actually proof that your immune system is working the way it's supposed to. "With the first dose, you are having to generate an immune response from the ground up," said Michael Worobey, head of the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Arizona. The body produces antibodies, but also starts to generate immune cells called B cells to make targeted antibodies – and that takes time, Worobey said.

The Global Vaccine Poem, a collaboration between the University of Arizona Poetry Center the Wick Poetry Center at Kent State University, aims to create meaning from hardship, spread vaccine awareness and build on Wick's Traveling Stanzas project that fuses poetry with everyday life.

As states expand coronavirus vaccine eligibility to include younger adults, universities are planning to inoculate students to make it safer to reopen fully by the fall.  The University of Arizona is on track to vaccinate its student body and will open appointments on Friday mornings. New, wider, eligibility guidelines in the state will allow the university to get closer to its goal of vaccinating every student before the semester ends. The university has distributed more than 80,000 doses of the vaccine at its state-run site.

About 1,100 agricultural workers received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine as part of the University of Arizona's mobile health clinic at a Rousseau Farming facility on Thursday and Friday, according to officials.

Jennifer Carlson, an associate professor in the School of Sociology in the UArizona College of Social and Behavioral Sciences, writes that we can find real solutions to gun violence if we recognize the trauma it causes.

The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the college admissions process in many ways, including the elimination of standardized test requirements and students' ability to visit schools. College admissions officers are interviewed about how their respective processes for recruiting and accepting students have changed. Kasey Urquidez, vice president for enrollment management and dean of undergraduate admissions at the University of Arizona, is interviewed.

Pandemic-weary Americans starved for human interaction and physical touch are taking advantage of a growing wellness option once reserved for Hollywood actors, rock stars and elite athletes: boutique stretching. Kory Floyd, a professor of communication and psychology at the University of Arizona, said activities that provide social interaction and some relief for "skin hunger" can help people manage stress better. A lack of casual touch – holding hands, hugging, putting one's arm around somebody, shaking hands – can have a significant negative impact, Floyd said.

An exclusive finding suggests the jaguar's range may be expanding – and a new study verifies the U.S. has plentiful habitat to reclaim if the cats can reach it. This rare sighting came as a joy to Ganesh Marin, a doctoral student at University of Arizona and a National Geographic explorer who studies local wildlife abundance and movement using a grid of about a hundred camera traps at this ranch. "It was like finding a needle in a haystack," he said.

University of Arizona researcher Jekan Thanga's ambitious, Noah's Ark-inspired project aims to preserve humankind – and animal-kind, plant-kind and fungi-kind – in the event of a global crisis.