University of Arizona in the News

Dr. Murtaza Akhter, a clinical assistant professor at the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Phoenix, answers viewer questions about the coronavirus vaccine.

University of Arizona President Robert C. Robbins discusses the university's mitigation efforts in regard to holiday travel. 

Renowned illusionist, mentalist and performance artist Scott Silven invites you on a journey, from your home to his. Arizona Arts Live is hosting this virtual performance Dec. 1-6.

Hospitals have put their pandemic plans into action, adding more beds and creating makeshift COVID-19 wards. But in the hardest-hit areas, experts say there are simply not enough doctors, nurses and other specialists to staff those beds. "The winter is traditionally a very stressful time in health care, and everyone gets taken down at some point," said Saskia Popescu, an infectious epidemiologist at the University of Arizona.

New University of Arizona-led research updates our understanding of how water escaped Mars – not like a leaky faucet but with a sudden splash.

Airline passengers must present negative antibody test results before boarding. Scientists consider it a largely useless way to curb disease transmission. In theory, that could be a sound strategy, said Deepta Bhattacharya, an immunologist at the University of Arizona: "We're fans of being able to check with two independent kinds of tests." But the approach quickly falls apart, he added, if officials select the wrong test as a safety net, as appears to be the case with China.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says wearing cloth masks not only keeps people from unknowingly transmitting the virus, it keeps people from inhaling the virus from the air. Saskia Popescu, an infectious disease epidemiologist at the University of Arizona, tweeted, "We know that even fabric masks offer some variable protection for the wearer, but I think the bigger issue is that the CDC has to reiterate this to get people to wear a mask."

The latest show from experimental theater duo 600 Highwaymen, "A Thousand Ways," is a triptych whose first part, "A Phone Call," is a product of digital alienation. That first part (currently presented by Canadian Stage in Toronto, Arizona Arts Live in Tucson and the Singapore International Festival of Arts) is entirely distanced. As with online performance, people can get tickets to participate in "A Phone Call" from anywhere.

The Associated Press released its preseason poll Tuesday morning, and the Wildcats women's basketball team was ranked No. 7 overall — the program's highest preseason ranking ever. An hour later, senior guard Aari McDonald was named to the Ann Meyers Drysdale award watch list. McDonald won the award last season as the best shooting guard in the country. Coach Adia Barnes said it felt "so great to make history. … I look back at how far the program has come in such a short time."

University of Arizona astronomers Daniel Apai and Jeremy Dietrich write that new methods of analysis can guide discoveries of new planets, help complete maps of planetary systems in the solar neighborhood and inform future searches for life.