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Rising Seas Put Millions of Americans at Risk for Flooding

By Guest PostMarch 16, 2012Environmentamericans, atlantic seaboard, benjamin h strauss, california, canal region, coastal elevation, flooding, florida, gulf of mexico, jeremy l weiss, jonathan t overpeck, long beach, los angeles, louisiana, maryland, mission beach, new jersey, new york, remik ziemlinski, rising seas, san diego, sea level, university of arizona, us coastal region, venice

New estimates suggest more U.S. land prone to flooding than previously thought.

About 3.7 million Americans are at risk for flooding as the sea level continues to rise in the coming century, according to a new study from a team that includes University of Arizona researchers.

Areas on the south Atlantic Seaboard and surrounding the Gulf of Mexico appear to be most prone to future flooding. In terms of numbers of people at risk, Florida is the most vulnerable, closely followed by Louisiana, California, New York and New Jersey. (more…)

Another World, Magnified

By Guest PostMarch 14, 2012Scienceaesthetics, animals, arts and sciences, beauty and art, canada, ersilia anghel, fulgurite, human anatomy, humans, magnified, minerals, Netherlands, photograph, pituitary gland, plants, romania, sarah moore, sci pho, triple citizenship, united kingdom, university of arizona

UA undergraduate researcher Ersilia Anghel has been collecting artistic photographs of minerals, plants, animals and humans, illustrating the intersections between the arts and sciences.

Scientists and artists have long collaborated to produce illustrative images and paintings of medical procedures, human anatomy and botanical displays.

But with the emergence of new, advanced technologies, scientists have begun to more readily produce their own photographic works, often times revealing the aesthetics of another world around us. (more…)

NASA Mars Orbiter Catches Twister in Action

By Guest PostMarch 11, 2012Scienceamazonis planitia, dust devil, earth, hirise, mars, mars reconnaissance orbiter, martian year, NASA, sun rays, tornado, university of arizona, whirlwind

An afternoon whirlwind on Mars lofts a twisting column of dust more than half a mile (800 meters) high in an image from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

HiRISE captured the image on Feb. 16, 2012, while the orbiter passed over the Amazonis Planitia region of northern Mars. In the area observed, paths of many previous whirlwinds, or dust devils, are visible as streaks on the dusty surface. (more…)

Sailing in a Sea of Microbes

By Guest PostMarch 4, 2012Sciencealgae, Arctic, atmospheric chemistry, bacteria, biogeochemical cycles, biomass, carbon dioxide, Chile, climate, daniel stolte, easter island, Environment, food production, genome, Germany, global warming, grassroots initiative, greenhouse gas, matt sullivan, melissa duhaime, microbe, ocean water, oceans, oxygen production, pacific ocean, research vessel, saguaro cacti, sequence, tara oceans, ua, university of arizona, wolves, world of viruses, world of webs

Researchers led by Matt Sullivan at the UA are among the first to dive into the world of viruses drifting through the world’s oceans.

Surrounded by the deep blue of the Pacific Ocean stretching from horizon to horizon, a lonely dot is glinting in the sun. It is the aluminum hull of a sailboat, a 118-foot schooner with white sails billowing from two masts.

On the deck, crewmembers and scientists are milling about. Commands are flying back and forth, and soon a strange contraption consisting of tubes clustered around an array of sensors dangling from a crane is lowered into the water, until it disappears in the clear blue depths. (more…)

Russian Dolls of the Bug World

By Guest PostMarch 1, 2012Scienceacyrthosiphon pisum, aphid alarm pheromone, aphidius ervi, aphids, apse, bacteriophage, bacterium, battle for survival, environmental sciences, Europe, hamiltonella defense, hemolymph, insect, kerry oliver, martha molly hunter, North America, parasite and host, parasitic wasps, pea aphid, russian dolls, symbiont, trans b farnesene, university of arizona, virus, wasp larva

Parasitic wasps using tiny insects known as aphids as living nurseries for their brood can sniff out whether the host insect is protected by symbiotic bacteria, researchers have discovered.

A research team including Martha (Molly) Hunter from the department of entomology in the University of Arizona’s College of Agriculture of Life Sciences has disentangled relationships in an assembly of players that resemble Russian dolls: a bacterium that lives inside a tiny insect, a virus that infects those bacteria, and a parasitic wasp that lays its eggs in the insect.

In a war between parasite and host, the parasitic wasp, Aphidius ervi, and the pea aphid, Acyrthosiphon pisum, are locked in a battle for survival. (more…)

UA Professor to Attend Lady Gaga Foundation Launch

By Guest PostFebruary 27, 2012Cultureadult modeling, anti bullying ethos, anti bullying foundation, born this way, bullying, cyberbullying, cynthia germanotta, deepak chopra, drama, foundation, harassment, harvard university, kathleen sebelius, lady gaga, oprah winfrey, secretary, sheri bauman, university of arizona

UA professor Sheri Bauman, an expert in cyberbullying, is among those invited to attend the launch of Lady Gaga’s Born This Way Foundation, a nationwide education and advocacy organization.

University of Arizona researcher Sheri Bauman is a member of a small, but powerful, nationwide contingency invited to participate in the launch of Lady Gaga’s new anti-bullying foundation. (more…)

New Views Show Old NASA Mars Landers

By Guest PostFebruary 9, 2012Scienceball aerospace, bonneville crater, canadian space agency, color image, denver, earth, hirise camera, liquid water, lockheed martin space systems, mars, mars reconnaissance orbiter, martian arctic winter, martian soil particles, martian surface, meteorite, microscope, NASA, Phoenix, spacecraft, telescopic camera, three petal lander, university of arizona

The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter recorded a scene on Jan. 29, 2012, that includes the first color image from orbit showing the three-petal lander of NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover Spirit mission. Spirit drove off that lander platform in January 2004 and spent most of its six-year working life in a range of hills about two miles to the east.

Another recent image from HiRISE, taken on Jan. 26, 2012, shows NASA’s Phoenix Mars Lander and its surroundings on far-northern Mars after that spacecraft’s second Martian arctic winter. Phoenix exceeded its planned mission life in 2008, ending its work as solar energy waned during approach of its first Mars winter. (more…)

A Bug’s (Sex) Life: Diving Beetles Offer Clues About Sexual Selection

By Guest PostFebruary 6, 2012Nature, Sciencearizona desert, co evolution, dawn higginson, diving beetles, dytiscidae, epifluorescence image, Europe, evolution, evolutionary relationship, female, fertilization, great diving beetle, hygrotus sayi, invertebrate, kari segraves, kelly miller, larva, male, mammal, mollusk, reproductive organ, scott pitnick, sexual evolution, sexual selection, sexual trait, speciation, sperm evolution, sperm storage, spermatheca, syracuse university, thermonectus marmoratus, university of arizona

*Studies of diving beetles suggest sperm evolution may be driven by changes in female reproductive organs, challenging the paradigm of post-mating sexual selection being driven mostly by competition among sperm.*

Studying female reproductive tracts and sperm in diving beetles (Dytiscidae), researchers from the University of Arizona and Syracuse University have obtained a glimpse into a bizarre and amazing world of sperm that can take on a variety of forms – including joining together into conglomerates that navigate the twisted mazes of the female reproductive tract.

Analyses of the evolutionary relationships among diving beetles reveal that sperm form appears to follow function dictated by female reproductive organs. (more…)

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