The UA is partnering with Kabul University in Afghanistan to help build the school's heritage conservation program. Project director Suzanne Bott and colleague Atifa Rawan recently visited Kabul to meet with faculty there. Pictured here is the Municipality Building (left) and Abdul Rahman Mosque in downtown Kabul. (Photo courtesy of Suzanne Bott)
UA Helps Build Heritage Conservation Program in Afghanistan In an effort to help Afghanistan preserve its past, the UA is partnering with Kabul University to help build the college's cultural heritage conservation program. Three faculty members from Kabul will come to Tucson this summer to work with UA faculty and learn the latest techniques in conservation, research, artifact examination and documentation, and more.
In this artist's impression of Voyager 2's 1989 encounter with Neptune, the gas giant's Great Dark Spot is visible in the distance. Thought to be a hole in the giant planet's cloud cover, winds in that area have been clocked at 1,500 miles per hour, the fastest in the solar system (not the subject of this study). (Photo: NASA)
Storms on Uranus, Neptune Confined to Upper Atmosphere Applying newly developed analysis techniques to data obtained by NASA's Voyager 2 spacecraft in 1989, a team involving two UA planetary scientists discovered that weather phenomena on Uranus and Neptune are confined to the upper 680 miles of atmosphere instead of reaching deeper into the planets' interior as was previously thought.
Scheduled for launch in 2016, the OSIRIS-REx will travel to asteroid Bennu, scoop up a sample of pristine material leftover from the formation of the solar system, and return it to Earth in 2023.
UA-Led Asteroid Mission is a Go NASA has granted final approval of the OSIRIS-REx sample return mission led by the UA. The target asteroid, uniquely interesting scientifically, is one of the most potentially hazardous objects known - it has a one-in-2,000 chance of colliding with Earth in the late 22nd century. The asteroid could hold clues to the origin of the solar system.
One of many fresh impact craters spotted by the UA-led HiRISE camera, orbiting the Red Planet on board NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter since 2006. (Photo: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/UA)
UA Mars Camera Reveals Hundreds of Impacts Each Year Taking before and after pictures of the Martian terrain, researchers with the UA-led HiRISE camera have identified nearly 250 fresh impact craters on the Red Planet. The results provide scientists with a better yardstick to estimate how frequently craters are blasted on Mars, allowing them to assess recently formed features with greater accuracy.
A scanning electron microscope image shows the tiny, 1-millimeter-long bladders used to catch small organisms by Utricularia gibba, the humped bladderwort plant (color added). The submerged growing plant is a voracious carnivore, with its bladders leveraging vacuum pressure to suck in tiny prey at great speed. (Photo: Enrique Ibarra-Laclette and Claudia Anahí Pérez-Torres)
Carnivorous Plant Throws Out ‘Junk’ DNA UA genomics experts have helped decipher the DNA of the carnivorous bladderwort. This genome is the smallest ever sequenced from a higher plant, and scientists say that nearly all of it - 97 percent - comprises genes that code for proteins, suggesting the majority of noncoding DNA may not be crucial for complex life.
The UA is partnering with Kabul University in Afghanistan to help build the school's heritage conservation program. Project director Suzanne Bott and colleague Atifa Rawan recently visited Kabul to meet with faculty there. Pictured here is the Municipality Building (left) and Abdul Rahman Mosque in downtown Kabul. (Photo courtesy of Suzanne Bott)
In this artist's impression of Voyager 2's 1989 encounter with Neptune, the gas giant's Great Dark Spot is visible in the distance. Thought to be a hole in the giant planet's cloud cover, winds in that area have been clocked at 1,500 miles per hour, the fastest in the solar system (not the subject of this study). (Photo: NASA)
Scheduled for launch in 2016, the OSIRIS-REx will travel to asteroid Bennu, scoop up a sample of pristine material leftover from the formation of the solar system, and return it to Earth in 2023.
One of many fresh impact craters spotted by the UA-led HiRISE camera, orbiting the Red Planet on board NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter since 2006. (Photo: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/UA)
A scanning electron microscope image shows the tiny, 1-millimeter-long bladders used to catch small organisms by Utricularia gibba, the humped bladderwort plant (color added). The submerged growing plant is a voracious carnivore, with its bladders leveraging vacuum pressure to suck in tiny prey at great speed. (Photo: Enrique Ibarra-Laclette and Claudia Anahí Pérez-Torres)

Setting His Sights on Mars

  • UANews
  • June 30, 2011
Alfred McEwen, professor of planetary geology at the UA's Lunar and Planetary Laboratory and principal investigator of the HiRISE camera orbiting Mars, has received NASA's Distinguished Public Service Medal.

Study: Happy Orangutans Live Longer

  • UPI
  • June 29, 2011
Happier orangutans live longer, University of Edinburgh and UA researchers say – a finding that could shed light on the evolution of happiness in humans. Scientists assessed happiness by asking zoo and animal park keepers who work with orangutans about the animals' moods and social interactions.

UA Alumnus, TV Host Named National Geographic Fellow

  • East Valley Tribune
  • June 29, 2011
Zeb Hogan, a UA alumnus and host of "Monster Fish" on the National Geographic Channel, has been named a National Geographic Fellow – one of just 15 people worldwide to receive the honor for his passion and area of research, which has taken him around the world.

Clocking Neptune's Spin

  • UANews
  • June 29, 2011
By tracking atmospheric features on Neptune, a UA planetary scientist has accurately determined the planet's rotation, a feat that had not been previously achieved for any of the gas planets in our solar system except Jupiter.

UA Student's Summer Agenda: Underwater Robotics

  • UANews
  • June 28, 2011
UA mechanical and electrical engineering senior Edwardo Moreno will spend this summer building and testing underwater robots he designed for use in underwater exploration or national defense.

What Lies Beneath

  • Arizona Public Media
  • June 27, 2011
The Kartchner Caverns Microbial Observatory project has dedicated five years to determining what types of bacteria live in the caves. Armed with cutting-edge lab techniques and a cohort of willing students, UA researchers have cataloged the cave's inhabitants and what they do, finding a few surprises along the way.

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