University of Arizona in the News

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

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 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 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."

To figure out how holiday gatherings can be adapted so that possible transmission of COVID-19 is less likely, The Arizona Republic spoke with University of Arizona experts Charles Gerba and Kelly Reynolds.

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.

According to a team of geography researchers from King's College London and the University of Arizona, many U.S. citizens still live without indoor plumbing – even in the richest American cities. From 2013 to 2017, more than 1.1 million people in the U.S. did not have access to a piped water connection, the study says, with almost half of them living in the country's 50 largest cities.

The University of Arizona Poetry Center is a gathering place with lively discussion, sharing experiences and exchanging ideas. It is a space where academics pour over can't-be-found-elsewhere materials, and everyone is welcome to explore recordings, books and exhibits. Leading poets will discuss the future of poetry and speakers will toast the center and share its accomplishments during an online fundraiser at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 17.

NASA's University of Arizona-led OSIRIS-REx mission has successfully stowed the spacecraft's Sample Return Capsule and its abundant sample of asteroid Bennu.

Children infected with the coronavirus produce weaker antibodies and fewer types of them than adults do, suggesting they clear their infection much faster, according to a new study published Thursday. Deepta Bhattacharya, an immunologist at the University of Arizona, is quoted throughout the article. "You don't really need a huge, overly robust immune response to maintain protections over some period of time," he said. "I don't know that I would be especially worried that kids have a little bit lower antibody response."