UA News

UANews | To celebrate its first century, the UA department of electrical and computer engineering has organized a program of events to demonstrate how engineering affects every aspect of our lives. Highlights include an exhibition of planetary exploration rovers, a public lecture series and a gala.

UANews | UA archaeologist Vance T. Holliday, writing with a colleague in Current Anthropology, finds no evidence to support the theory that a catastrophic comet impact 13,000 years ago led to the sudden demise of Clovis hunters in North America.

UANews | Biosphere 2 researchers received a $424,623 grant from the National Science Foundation to study how plants and microbes interact to chew away on minerals and make new soil.

UANews | Collections of new small molecules with the potential to become important in the creation of new medications are under development by three UA researchers thanks to a $1.1 million three-year grant from the National Institutes of Health.

UANews | All but overlooked until the past decade, marine viruses far outnumber any other biological entity on the planet. Scientists are only beginning to discover the invisible particles that are the cogs of Earth's system, changing dynamics in food webs, fisheries, even climate.

UANews | UA physicists have discovered a new way of harvesting waste heat and turning it into electrical power. Taking advantage of quantum effects, the technology holds great promise for making cars, power plants, factories and solar panels more efficient.

UANews | On Sept. 25, UA planetary scientists will celebrate the 20th anniversary of the first automatic discovery of a near-Earth asteroid using computer software.

UANews | DiscoveryDays on Mt. Lemmon includes solar viewing through high-end amateur solar telescopes, tours of the Catalina Sky Survey 60-inch observatory telescope, interactive presentations about weather, monsoons and tree-ring science, and information about the UA's HiRise Mars mission, comets and meteorites. 

UANews | Paul S. Martin, the UA geoscientist who developed the idea that overhunting drove North America's large Ice Age mammals extinct, died Sept. 13 at his home in Tucson, Ariz. He was 82.

UANews | An ancestor of HIV that infects monkeys is thousands of years older than previously thought, suggesting that HIV, which causes AIDS, is not likely to stop killing humans anytime soon, finds a study by UA and Tulane University researchers.

UANews | A UA-led team of geologists reports that glaciers can help actively growing mountains become taller – contrary to the conventional view that the only role for glaciers in mountain formation is shrinking them through erosion.

UANews | The UA's student science organizations are beginning the academic year by making a difference at home and throughout the world.

UANews | Researchers are demonstrating that plants from Earth could be grown without soil on the moon or Mars, setting the table for astronauts who would find potatoes, peanuts, tomatoes, peppers and other vegetables awaiting their arrival.

UANews | An instrument designed and built at the UA measured the isotopic composition of the Mars atmosphere, suggesting liquid water has interacted with the Martian surface throughout the planet's history.

UANews | With plans to coordinate and improve outreach efforts to southern Arizona, the UA's College of Science has launched an outreach-focused center that will target resources and programs to K-12 students and educators.

UANews | The UA won an NSF grant to help fund a multiuser femtosecond laser facility. Understanding the behavior of sunlight the moment a photon hits the human body might, among other things, improve the early detection and treatment of disease, particularly cancer.

UANews | Roger Angel, director of the UA's Steward Observatory Mirror Lab, will receive the Kavli Prize during a ceremony in Norway on Sept. 7. The prize includes a medal struck from pure gold using an elaborate process.

UANews | Scientists seek to develop a rice strain that is better capable of withstanding drought and poorer soils and produces higher yields than current forms of domesticated rice.