University of Arizona in the News

As more heavy rain pummels California, water managers there hope to use the torrential downpours to replenish aquifers depleted by drought. However, recharge efforts could create legal issues due to complex water rights and environmental rules. For instance, senior water rights holders downstream might claim that diversions of floodwaters upstream could negatively impact them, said Sharon Megdal, director of the University of Arizona Water Resources Research Center.

The U.S. Postal Service announced Tuesday it would issue a new stamp honoring the University of Arizona-led OSIRIS-REx mission, praising the effort to return asteroid samples to Earth as something that "exemplifies American ingenuity, perseverance, and teamwork." The USPS will reveal the issue date and purchase locations soon.

An enigmatic photograph by legendary landscape photographer Ansel Adams titled "High Country Crags and Moon, Sunrise, Kings Canyon National Park" prompted a forensic hunt to identify exactly when and where it was taken. Rebecca Senf, the chief curator at the University of Arizona Center for Creative Photography and the author of a book on Adams's early career, said, initially, Adams was making pictures for fellow climbers and hikers who would recognize the strange terrain.

Factors including work, stress and hygiene can affect the quality of sleep people get. "The most important thing for a good night's sleep is to make sure that you set yourself up for success," said University of Arizona associate professor of psychiatry Dr. Michael Grandner, director of the university's Sleep and Health Research Program. "That means removing barriers to sleep like caffeine, reducing distractions close to bedtime, giving yourself enough time to wind down and keeping your bedroom cool, quiet, dark and comfortable."

The combination of high inflation and rising interest rates is increasingly straining the resources of U.S. consumers. Everything from car loans to mortgages and home equity lines of credit has become more onerous. Many homeowners have used these lines of credit to consolidate their other debt, which is a good move unless it prompts more credit card use, warns University of Arizona professor of marketing Anastasiya Ghosh. The debt doesn't disappear, but "it creates this false sense that 'I'm doing well financially.'"

The College of Social and Behavioral Sciences and College of Agriculture and Life Sciences have teamed up with the University of Maryland and three Arizona nonprofits – Tucson City of Gastronomy, the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum and Local First Arizona – to form the Arizona Partnership for Climate-Smart Food Crops

Just like us, they disinfected groceries, left their mail outside for 24 hours, canceled family gatherings, stopped eating out. But today, for the medical experts at the forefront of dealing with the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, everyday life has become more normal. All have been vaccinated and boosted, and many have had COVID too, a combination that seems to provide more durable protection. While the pandemic isn't gone, their risk calculations these days look different.

Daffodils, violets and other flowers are arriving early in many gardens and fields this spring, shedding light on how plants are adapting to climate change. Observers report very early leaf outs of the common lilac in Pennsylvania, forsythia in Maine and American witch hazel in New York, said Theresa Crimmins, director of the USA National Phenology Network at the University of Arizona. "This year, a really mild winter has been followed by persistent warm temperatures," she said. "The earlier springs really stand out in places like New York City."

Fear of infection and strict hospital protocols during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic often meant victims of the virus had no family members with them as they passed away. Not being able to say goodbye, express love, gratitude or forgiveness, and not having the memory of seeing a loved one's physical decline and death, complicates the grieving process, said Mary-Frances O'Connor, a neuroscientist at the University of Arizona who studies how the brain reacts to grief.

This column points to the University of Arizona Libraries' website's inclusion of five core values as a good example of how to express an institution's guiding principles and explain its commitment to values-based practice.