University of Arizona in the News

GeekDad Dec. 9, 2021
Netflix original 'Don’t Look Up' hits the big screen before streaming

This preview of Netflix's new movie, "Don't Look Up" includes an interview with Amy Mainzer, professor in the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory at the University of Arizona, who served as a consultant on the film.
The Conversation Dec. 9, 2021
James Webb Space Telescope: what astronomers hope it will reveal about the beginning of the universe

The gigantic James Webb Space Telescope is undergoing its final tests ahead of the launch scheduled for late December. University of Arizona Regents professor of astronomy Marcia Rieke appears on The Conversation Weekly podcast to discuss the development of the telescope and the questions she hopes it will answer about the beginning of the universe. "We have some clues that a range of sizes of galaxies or star clusters formed early on," says Rieke, "but we don't understand what that range of sizes is. Nor do we understand very well how those pieces come together to form bigger and bigger galaxies."
Space.com Dec. 8, 2021
Asteroid scientist Amy Mainzer talks space rock impacts and Netflix's new movie 'Don't Look Up'
Quanta Dec. 6, 2021
The Webb Space Telescope will rewrite cosmic history. If it works.

The James Webb Space Telescope has been designed to answer many of the core questions that have animated astronomers over the past half-century. Various institutions, from the University of Arizona to the European Space Agency, signed up to build the onboard instruments such as the NIRCam (as in "near-infrared camera"), one of Webb's four main tools, which was designed by University of Arizona professor Marcia Rieke who plans to use it to conduct a new deep-field survey that will peer deeper into the past than ever before. "Close to the limit that Hubble can go to, there are quasars," she said, referring to the super-bright centers of galaxies powered by supermassive black holes – "and it looks like they have almost the same elements as the sun. Which is hard to believe. So there’s something that goes on early that we don’t have a good handle on."
WIRED Dec. 6, 2021
Is there a genetic link to being an extremely good boy?

Guide dogs need the right personality, health and training. Around half of all dogs bred for guiding don't end up doing that work because of health or behavioral problems. Modern dogs suffer from many genetic diseases, a side effect of keeping breeds separate and selecting them for desirable traits. A study led by Evan MacLean, director of the Arizona Canine Cognition Center at the University of Arizona, relied on existing genetic data sets and surveys with dog owners. That's not ideal, because the genetic and behavioral data were from separate sample groups, and not from the same dogs. "The only reason we took the breed-average approach was to compile massive amounts of behavioral and genetic data from the existing literature," MacLean said.
The Washington Post Dec. 3, 2021
Colleges prepare for unknowns with omicron variant

College officials were already bracing for a potential rise in coronavirus cases when students returned to campus after Thanksgiving break. Then the world learned of the omicron variant, with its troubling mutations and a host of unknowns. "I think we've got to wait and see," said University of Arizona President Robert C. Robbins. "We're thinking strategically about how to address all these very daunting issues over the next semester. We take it sort of semester at a time, but frankly, we take it a day at a time."
The Hill Dec. 2, 2021
Addressing agriculture in the withering West

University of Arizona professor Gary Paul Nabhan, the W.K. Kellogg chair in food and water security for the borderlands at the Southwest Studies Center, writes that most Americans are aware that much of the West is suffering unrelenting drought, but they may not recognize how dramatically broader climatic shifts are affecting farmers' and ranchers' options for the future."
The Wall Street Journal Nov. 29, 2021
For COVID-19 vaccine doses, should there be more time between shots?

Two-dose vaccines are typically spaced months and sometimes years apart to provide long-lasting protection from disease. As children begin to get their COVID-19 shots, emerging research in adults suggests that waiting longer between doses could have similar benefits. The first COVID-19 shot generates memory B cells, which help fight infection. Over time, the stronger memory B cells survive while the weaker ones die, notes Deepta Bhattacharya, a professor of immunobiology at the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Tucson. A second shot bolsters that protection; if it happens later in the process, when the weaker cells have died, the shot will boost a stronger set of cells.
Forbes Nov. 29, 2021
This mouth-watering exhibit shows why our craving for food art is insatiable

The University of Arizona Museum of Art unveiled an art exhibit that's good enough to eat. Fitting for Tucson, the first UNESCO City of Gastronomy in the United States, "The Art of Food: From the Collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and His Family Foundation" opened at the museum on Oct. 24 and run through March 20, 2022.
The Washington Post Nov. 28, 2021
A changing climate is buckling concrete and flooding roads. States are moving slowly to guard the nation’s infrastructure.

Responding to increasingly common extreme weather is a vast undertaking that many state transportation departments are only beginning to tackle. Until recently, a widely used planning tool for road-building relied on climate data recorded from the 1960s to the 1990s. A study by a team of researchers at the University of Arizona and another institution compared that climate record with data through 2014, concluding that higher summer temperatures mean many states should be changing their formulation of asphalt in some locations to avoid premature road failures.