University of Arizona in the News

University of Arizona Heath Sciences researchers developed one of the most accurate COVID-19 antibody tests available and now have shown antibodies persist for months after infection, providing long-term immunity.

Many election experts have warned it might take days or even weeks after Election Day for a final outcome in the presidential race due to the unprecedented deluge of mail ballots amid the coronavirus pandemic. But the country could get major clues on election night even as counting continues in some key states. "I think the conventional wisdom of this thing taking weeks or many, many days is probably wrong," said Thomas Volgy, a political science professor at the University of Arizona.

The OSIRIS-REx mission is gearing up for its first attempt to collect a sample from asteroid Bennu this month. But before even touching the surface, scientists are learning more than ever about the material that makes up the asteroid.

U.S. coronavirus cases are rising again, driven by rapid transmission in Midwestern states and sparking fears that a forewarned wave of infections this fall and winter has begun. "My biggest concern is around the continued vigilance that prevention requires – the distancing, masking, avoidance of crowded indoor areas, etc. The fatigue factor sets in," said Saskia Popescu, an epidemiologist at the University of Arizona.

Additional students are expected to be on the University of Arizona campus this week as more in-person instruction gets underway.

Rita Stubbs, an assistant coach for the University of Arizona's volleyball team, helped establish the Pac-12 Diversity Mentorship Program to give minorities the resources to develop, build networks and learn from current, successful coaches.

Through a National Institutes of Health program called "All of Us," tribal nations across Indian Country are pushing federal scientists to conduct disease research that serves Indigenous peoples in a meaningful way. "We're concerned about access to data as well as release of data without tribal permission," said Stephanie Russo Carroll (Ahtna-Native Village of Kluti-Kaah), a professor in the University of Arizona's Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health.

Black and Hispanic people and people with low incomes are more likely to live in areas at high risk of flooding from natural disasters than white and Asian people, according to a new study led by the University of Arizona.

Agrivoltaics, the co-locating of agriculture and solar photovoltaic panels, offers a possible solution, with University of Arizona-led research reporting positive impacts on food production, water savings and the efficiency of electricity production.

Astrophysicist Burçin Mutlu-Pakdil discovered an extremely odd-shaped galaxy in the background of a broad survey of the sky. The galaxy in question had a central body surrounded by an elliptical outer ring of stars, unconnected to the core. This is an extremely rare phenomenon – 1 in 1,000 galaxies take on this configuration, conservatively. But Mutlu-Pakdil looked closer and lo and behold – the galaxy had not one, but two rings – a completely new kind of galaxy.