University of Arizona in the News

A powerful earthquake struck western Japan on New Year's Day, killing dozens of people, destroying homes and triggering fears of greater harm from aftershocks, tsunamis and landslides. Japan sits on top of four major tectonic plates, making it one of the most seismically active countries in the world.

At University of Arizona, celestial inquiry generates hundreds of research-funded jobs and a Super Bowl's worth of economic enterprise.

Establishing a set wake-up time, even on weekends, vacations or after a night of poor sleep, helps the body stay in rhythm and better respond to stress and illness. "The brain likes regularity and predictability," said University of Arizona associate professor of psychiatry Dr. Michael Grandner, head of the university's Sleep and Health Research Program. "Waking up at the same time every day, and then adding light and movement as soon as you wake up, will set your other rhythms for the day and give you increased energy and mood."

University of Arizona professor of information Winslow Burleson discusses the development of the Ocean Space Habitat, a a portable, inflatable underwater tent intended to allow scientists to spend more time doing research while submerged, without having to keep coming up to the surface.

After NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission successfully collected and delivered the first U.S. sample from a near-Earth asteroid in September, the space agency extended the University of Arizona-led mission so that the spacecraft can study another near-Earth asteroid, Apophis, under the new name OSIRIS-APEX. Meanwhile, scientists from the university's Lunar and Planetary Laboratory continue to work on the initial analyses of the sample material.

The Aral Sea once ranked as the fourth-largest lake in the world, but thanks to poor water management in recent decades, the lake shrank to just 10% of its original size. Now, some express concern the same fate may meet important reservoirs in the United States such as Lake Mead. "There are certainly some valuable lessons that can be learned from the drying up of the Aral Sea for other parts of the world, especially those of us living in the Colorado River basin," said University of Arizona professor of geography, development and environment Andrea K.

The New Frontiers of Sound Science and Technology Center will focus on topological acoustics, an emerging field in which researchers exploit the properties of sound in ways that could vastly improve computing, telecommunications and sensing.

University of Arizona President Robert C. Robbins writes about the university's plan to address the university's financial challenges that he presented to the Arizona Board of Regents on Dec. 13.

If an issue is worth discussing, University of Arizona professor of communication Chris Segrin, a specialist in interpersonal relationships, recommends developing a plan in advance based on specific goals. "Try to avoid using (other people) as a listening board for your own emotions because that translates to very different goals," Segrin said. "'I want to get this off my chest, off my mind,' versus 'There's something I would like to see different, some change.'"

For decades, scientists have used rings from long-lived trees like ponderosa pines to uncover clues about ancient climates. Those analyses helped prove human-made greenhouse gas emissions are warming the planet and demonstrated modern climate extremes are unprecedented in the last 1,000 years. Now, cutting-edge techniques allow researchers to observe how the rings form in real time.