University of Arizona in the News

The University of Arizona Department of Athletics achieved a record-breaking year in the classroom last school year, with 11 programs earning perfect 1,000 single-year Academic Progress Rate scores: men's basketball, golf, tennis, track and field, and cross country, as well as women's cross country, softball, swimming and diving, tennis, beach volleyball, and volleyball.

A team of astronomers led by Sarah Moran with the University of Arizona Lunar and Planetary Laboratory detected water vapor coming from an exoplanet, or its star, using NASA's James Webb Space Telescope. About 30% larger than Earth and three times as massive, GJ 486 b orbits a red dwarf star once every two Earth days. It is likely tidally locked, with a permanent day side and a permanent night side.

Experts say that as we age, our bodies change both internally and externally, which results in changes to our sleep patterns. So, for a younger person, dinner time may help the brain understand bedtime is in a few hours. For someone older, this connection may not happen. "The wiring of the brain is likely not sensing ... and responding to the inputs as well as it should because it's an aging brain," said Dr. Sairam Parthasarathy, the director of the Center for Sleep and Circadian Sciences at University of Arizona Health Sciences.

Lake Mead has seen a steady rise in water levels over the past few days after the release of a huge volume of water from Glen Canyon Dam. A video of the action received more than 350,000 views since it was posted Sunday. Before the release, the reservoir reached record-low water levels in recent weeks."Prolonged drought and over-allocation have dramatically reduced the amount of water in the Colorado River and the stored water in Lake Mead and Lake Powell," said Andrea Achilli, an associate professor of chemical and environmental engineering at the University of Arizona.

Seemingly daily, the U.S. receives yet another stark reminder of the pervasiveness of guns in society, with hundreds of millions of firearms in circulation nationwide. In her new book, "Merchants of the Right," University of Arizona associate professor of sociology Jennifer Carlson explores some of the forces behind that saturation and the political culture that goes with it.

Seismic activity could be the source of the mysteriously smooth terrain on several moons circling Jupiter and Saturn, according to a recent study led by Mackenzie Mills, a doctoral student at the University of Arizona Lunar and Planetary Lab.

The work of University of Arizona Professor Michael Worobey, head of the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, has taken him into dangerous jungles and raging scientific controversies. This profile centers largely on his research into the origins of COVID-19.

It's been almost a year and a half since the James Webb Space Telescope was launched, and scientists continue to be amazed by the images it's sending back and discoveries they have been able to make. University of Arizona Regents Professor of Astronomy Marcia Rieke, the principal investigator on Webb's Near-Infrared Camera, discusses researchers' remarkable results so far.

A University of Arizona-led forecast predicts an above-average hurricane season this year. Working off a model built by professor of hydrology and atmospheric sciences Xubin Zeng, researchers expect nine named storms to develop, five of them major.

The American Institute of Architects and the American Library Association on Tuesday named the University of Arizona Student Success District one of five winners of the 2023 Library Building Awards. The annual award honors "the best in library architecture and design."