University of Arizona in the News

The University of Arizona Richard F. Caris Mirror Laboratory will start fabrication of the seventh segment of the primary mirror necessary to complete the Giant Magellan Telescope. The GMT marks a milestone in the search for other, potentially Earth-like planets.

A new study should encourage people who shy away from COVID shots because of worries about side effects: The chills, fatigue, headache and malaise that can follow vaccination appear to be signs of a vigorous immune response. Perhaps equally encouraging: People who show no ill effects from vaccination also generate enormous amounts of antibodies. "If you're feeling crappy, then odds are that you're probably mounting a pretty reasonable immune response," said University of Arizona professor of immunobiology Deepta Bhattacharya.

Native American communities in the Southwest are divided over new federal protections against mining and drilling for New Mexico's Chaco Canyon, land some tribes consider sacred. In his recent book "Carbon Sovereignty," University of Arizona assistant professor of geography, development and environment Andrew Curley, a member of the Navajo Nation, writes that the discovery of oil near Shiprock, New Mexico, in 1922 prompted the formation of the Navajo Nation's Council, so there was a body to sign deals with petroleum companies.

A study published in the journal Science confirms human footprints sunk into the mud in White Sands National Park in New Mexico are more than 21,000 years old. Researchers confirmed their initial finding with two new lines of evidence: thousands of grains of pollen and an analysis of quartz crystals in the sediments. "It's more or less a master class in how you do this," said Edward Jolie, an anthropological archaeologist at the University of Arizona who has studied the White Sands footprints in the field but was not involved in the new study.

A 2021 spectroscopic analysis of the asteroid 16 Psyche led by David Cantillo of the University of Arizona determined that the space rock, the 12th largest object in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, likely consists of 82.5% metal.

Research led by University of Arizona associate professor of dendrochronology Bryan Black nearly pinpoints the dates of two large earthquakes that shook the Pacific Northwest in late 923 or 924 C.E. The team used underwater chainsaws to cut sections from trees preserved at the bottom of six lakes to identify when they fell and died.

University of Arizona professor of English Manuel Muñoz was named one of this year's MacArthur Fellows, a prestigious fellowship awarded each year by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

The latest formula of COVID vaccine recently showed up in local pharmacies. Experts predict it will become like the annual flu shot: one and done. However, since the end of the public health emergency in May 2023, health insurance companies are expected to pick up the tab. In the meantime, for those who are uninsured or underinsured, the CDC is providing a Bridge Access Program to cover the cost of the shot through Dec. 31, 2024.

A poll released in May finds roughly two out of three people in the U.S. remove their shoes when they get home, either as a cultural practice or just a way to reduce the amount of germs and grime encountered in the outside world, including fecal matter. Charles Gerba, a professor of virology at the University of Arizona, discovered a grab bag of fecal matter when he conducted a study that entailed swabbing the bottom of 26 shoes. He found E. coli on more than a quarter of them and some kind of fecal bacteria on almost all.

Landing day for the University of Arizona-led OSIRIS-REx sample return was also launch day for the OSIRIS-APEX mission, as the spacecraft took on a new name, a new mission, and a new leader in assistant professor of planetary sciences Dani DellaGiustina. Over the next six years, DellaGiustina and her team will guide the spacecraft to its next target: a potentially dangerous near-Earth asteroid called Apophis.