The Mating Game
The local boy with the most bling is a good choice in the spring, but as summer progresses a girl bird's best bet is a stranger.

Who's chosen by whom in the mating game is determined by seasonal changes in the genetic diversity of available mates, according to new research based on a 10-year study of wild finches.

The finding helps explain a long-standing evolutionary biology paradox.

Previous research has shown that female birds often go for the flashier guys. Many biologists argue that competition for mates is the driving force behind the evolution of such elaborate getups as a male peacock's tail. But if everyone mates with the same perfect-looking individual, ultimately that would result in inbreeding, said Kevin P. Oh, a doctoral student in UA's department of ecology and evolutionary biology.

Particularly healthy kids are produced when the parents are genetically different. However, choosing one's genetic better half would generate more diversity in looks.

Alexander V. Badyaev, assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, said, what he and Oh have learned not only provides a new explanation of how birds choose mates, but also may apply to other members of the animal kingdom. Read the full story online.


Going Back to Mars
Space scientists and engineers are readying the Phoenix Mission lander for its launch to Mars in August 2007.

The Phoenix Mission will be run from The University of Arizona, with Peter Smith as the principal investigator, after a May 2008 landing.

The Phoenix Scout Mission to Mars aims to uncover clues about the history of water and potential for habitat to support life. It will feature a robotic arm for digging into the Martian soil, a robotic arm camera, a surface stereo camera, a descent camera, a high-temperature furnace and mass spectrometer called TEGA, a miniature wet chemistry laboratory and a meteorological station — all working from a lander platform the size of a breakfast table.

Scientists and students at UA's Lunar and Planetary Lab have been assembling and testing the robotic arm camera, the surface stereo camera, a powerful microscope that's part of the mini chemistry lab and TEGA. They began shipping instruments from UA for integration to the spacecraft in May.

Teams from UA's Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, Lockheed Martin Space Systems and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory began adding complex subsystems to the main structure of the spacecraft at Lockheed's facility in Denver in April. The flight computer, power systems and science instruments will be fully assembled at Lockheed by October 2006. From November 2006 through March 2007, the lander will be shaken, baked, frozen, zapped and asphyxiated in tests to prove the spacecraft will survive the harsh environment in space and on Mars.

While the spacecraft comes together in Denver, scientists and students are building a full mock up of the lander in what's called the Payload Interoperability Testbed (PIT) at their mission Science Operations Center in Tucson. The "PIT" isn't just for show -- it's where scientists will test and practice their landed operation sequences weeks before they try for real on Mars. They'll remotely control the robotic arm to dig in many different soil types, ranging from hard ice to loose sand, and deliver samples to other science instruments. The Phoenix Mission Science Operations Center will hold an open house in October 2006.

Phoenix Mars Lander Web site


Unraveling the Maize Genome
UA/BIO5 researchers and their partners are unlocking the genetic code of the corn plant. The knowledge gained from the Maize Genome Sequencing Project will enable plant scientists and breeders to improve agronomically important traits in cereal crops more rapidly.

"The genome sequence will tell us which genes we need to focus on to develop corn varieties that produce higher yield and better quality with less water on less land," said Rod Wing, who is a professor in the department of plant sciences at the UA College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and a member of BIO5. Other improvements aim at increasing yield and nutritional value and optimizing the properties crucial for grain products such as flour, noodles and pasta.

"Once the corn genome sequence is in our hands, these advances can happen much faster," Wing said.

Unraveling the corn genome will be a breakthrough with enormous implications for other cereal crops besides corn, including varieties important for Arizona, such as wheat, sorghum and millet.

The National Science Foundation awarded the consortium of four research institutions a $29 million federal grant to unlock the genetic code.

Bio5 Web Site

High resolution graphics available at:
http://uanews.org/silk/request/0001_maize_genome_h.jpg
and
http://uanews.org/silk/request/0002_maize_uses_h.jpg
(Please credit Nicolle Rager Fuller, National Science Foundation)


New CPR a Life Saver
Survival rates following the most common form of cardiac arrest increased three-fold when emergency medical personnel used a new form of CPR developed at The University of Arizona Sarver Heart Center. The new approach, called Cardiocerebral Resuscitation, is dramatically different from guideline-directed CPR procedures.

"Cardiocerebral Resuscitation eliminates certain previously recommended procedures and reprioritizes the order of actions the emergency medical services deliver," said Dr. Michael J. Kellum, leading author of the study report.

Under the new approach, first responders skipped the first steps of the standard protocol: intubating the patient for ventilation and delivering a shock using a defibrillator. While still attaching the victim to a defibrillator, they did not wait for the device to analyze the patient’s heart rhythm, but started fast, forceful chest compressions.

"In laboratory experiments, we found that the most important factor of survival is to keep the blood moving through the body by continuous chest compressions," said Dr. Gordon A. Ewy, director of the Sarver Heart Center and co-author of the study, who pioneered the CPR Research Group at the Sarver Heart Center. "Stopping chest compressions for ventilations was far more harmful than helpful. Excessive ventilations during chest compression turned out to be harmful, too.

"I am convinced that Cardiocerebral Resuscitation will have a worldwide impact."

Sarver Heart Center


Smart Eyeglasses
Optical scientists have developed eyeglass lenses that switch focus in a blink of an eye.

Optical scientists at The University of Arizona have developed new switchable, flat, liquid crystal diffractive lenses that can adaptively change their focusing power.

That's great news for those old enough to wear bifocals.

And it's great news for anyone with imperfect vision, for it opens the way for next-generation "smart" eyeglasses — glasses with built-in automatic focus.

In the foreseeable future, for example, you won't change prescription eyeglasses — your eye doctor will just tweak a new prescription into the specs you already own.

You could even program your glasses for better than 20-20 vision.

"Ultimately this will act just like your automatic camera: Eyeglass lenses will know where to focus just like your auto-focusing camera does," said Nasser Peyghambarian, chair of photonics and lasers in UA's College of Optical Sciences and professor of optical sciences.

Read more on Smart Eyeglasses.

High resolution images:
http://uanews.org/silk/request/glasses1939.tif
http://uanews.org/silk/request/glasses1951.tif
http://uanews.org/silk/request/glasses1959.tif
http://uanews.org/silk/request/glasses1964.tif


Save the Meteorites
The world's meteorites are vanishing. They are being collected around the world at record pace and cut into small pieces for sale to bidders in a flooded market. Scientists are alarmed because the extraterrestrial rocks can help them unlock the secrets of our solar system's history and, possibly, the origins of life.

But a meteorite collector and a university scientist are organizing a new center to save the irreplaceable solar system treasure for future generations.

Marvin Killgore of Payson, Ariz., one of the world's foremost private collectors of meteorites, and Dante Lauretta, of The University of Arizona Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, have founded the UA Southwest Meteorite Center (SWMC). The center will preserve space rocks through an alternative marketing strategy designed to benefit meteorite collectors dealers and enthusiasts, while preserving the resource for scientists who need meteorites for research and educational activities.

SWMC will offer collectors, dealers, owners, and amateur enthusiasts a fair price for part of the vanishing meteorite legacy. In some cases, this will allow collectors who've spent their lives cherishing meteorites to preserve their collections after they die. Staff will document each meteorite, curate meteorites to the highest standards, and add the information to a comprehensive database that will be available to the public.

University of Arizona Southwest Meteorite Center


Seeking to Cure Valley Fever
The BIO5 Institute at The University of Arizona announced this spring that a promising treatment for valley fever received Orphan Drug Status from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

The Orphan Drug Act allows the federal government to assist in the development of treatments for rare diseases, which according to the FDA are those that affect fewer than 200,000 people a year.

Though rare in the rest of the country, valley fever is a serious health problem in the Southwest, with approximately 150,000 new infections each year. Valley fever is a lung disease caused by fungal spores found in soil.

Pre-clinical data from experimental studies in mice show that the valley fever fungus was eradicated with the drug nikkomycin z.

"This offers hope that nikkomycin z might be curative in people," said Dr. John Galgiani, director of the UA Valley Fever Center for Excellence, a professor in the UA College of Medicine and the Southern Arizona VA Health Care System, and a BIO5 faculty member.

The anti-fungal drugs now used help the immune system control the disease, but do not kill the fungus.

Bio5