University of Arizona in the News

A pilot program at the University of Arizona provided what may be the first example of an app slowing the viral spread in the United States. During an outbreak there this fall, it sent alerts for as many as 12% of transmissions, researchers estimated. "We believe that the outbreak on campus had a flatter curve because of the app," said Joanna Masel, a mathematical biology professor who has helped supervise the rollout of the program, called Covid Watch.

A University of Arizona discovery suggests that the Maya civilization developed more rapidly than archaeologists once thought and hints at less social inequality than later periods. Archaeology Magazine named this one of the top 10 discoveries of 2020.

Tanning bed use in early adulthood is associated with an increased risk for endometriosis, according to a new study. Leslie V. Farland, an assistant professor in the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics the University of Arizona, and colleagues examined the potential associations between ultraviolet radiation and endometriosis risk in a prospective cohort of 116,429 female U.S. nurses from the Nurses' Health Study II.

It’s fitting that this year's University of Arizona homecoming queen would break from tradition. Nikita Ganesh is a rugby-playing, triple-majoring, 5-foot-5-inch dynamo who is just as comfortable in Shanghai as she is at Sitton Field.

The Phoenix area emerged as an unlikely oasis for sports in recent months because of its willingness to host youth events during the pandemic as nearby states restricted or barred them altogether. The resulting tension between these events and the COVID surge came to a head when Phoenix's city council gathered Wednesday night for a virtual meeting.

In a new informal survey of 700 epidemiologists by The New York Times, half said they would not change their personal behavior until at least 70 percent of the population was vaccinated. Thirty percent said they would make some changes once they were vaccinated themselves. "I won't take traveling to my extended family for granted," said Alicia Allen, an assistant professor at the University of Arizona.

Chris Impey, a Distinguished Professor of Astronomy at the University of Arizona, writes that scientists do not discount the idea of aliens, but they aren't convinced by the evidence to date because it is unreliable, or because there are so many other more mundane explanations.

Arizona has recovered better than most states from COVID-19 economic disruptions but still has a long way to go, with the pace of improvement hinging on vaccines and further federal aid. That's the view of George Hammond, director of the Economic and Business Research Center at the University of Arizona, who presented a Dec. 4 forecast on behalf of the Eller College of Management.

Target-date funds are designed to give investors a diversified portfolio that automatically rebalances over time, as a goal like retirement or college approaches. The funds are increasingly popular, particularly in 401(k) accounts and among younger investors. But a new academic paper, released in October but as yet unpublished, points a finger at the fees that target-date fund investors pay, which, the researchers calculate, total an average of one-third of a percentage point annually.

Astronomers are watching an object transform into a hyperactive comet that will head toward the inner solar system in the coming decades. Astronomers could see escaping icy matter forming a hazy cloud called a coma, and a tail rocketed out into the inky beyond. But its coma lacks water vapor, said Teddy Kareta, a planetary astronomy graduate student at the University of Arizona and co-author of the study. Combined with models of its orbital evolution, this suggests LD2 has not yet visited the inner solar system.