UA Tree Ring Lab in National Geographic

Three UA professors from the UA Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research were featured in a January National Geographic article.

The article included Thomas Swetnam, director of the UA Laboratory Tree-Ring Research, David Meko, associate research professor of dendrochronology and Connie Woodhouse, associate professor of geography and regional development.

The article, “”Drying of the West,”” discusses how the twentieth century, despite being the wettest in the last thousand years, disguises the truth of how dry a region actually is.

The article also shows how fire suppression and climate change are affecting sky island mountain tops.

UA professor’s book up for National Book Prize

Journalism professor Alan Weisman’s book, “”The World Without Us”” was named a finalist in the nonfiction category of the National Book Critics Circle prize.

The book details what Earth would look like without humans.

Barnes and Noble named Weisman’s book as the number one nonfiction pick for 2007. Mother Jones has named it one of its top 2007 Media Picks and the Web site AlterNet included it on a list of “”Books that will change the world.””

The 34th Annual National Book Critics Circle prize winners will be named March 6 in New York City.

Tests to prevent lymphoma treatment failure

The Arizona Cancer Center is participating in a nationwide clinical trial to test the outcome of a new agent that will fight against B-cell lymphoma.

The agent, PXD101, is supposed to target what causes B-cell lymphoma treatment to fail.

The test will show how B-cell lymphoma cells interact with the PXD101, how patients handle the new treatment and how long patients live without the disease coming back.

The Southwest Oncology Group is running the tests and the National Cancer Institute is the sponsor.

UA geosciences professor discovers new islands

Richard Bennett, an assistant professor of geosciences, is the leader of a team of geologists who discovered a new fault line building up the Dalmatian Islands and Dinaride Mountains of Croatia.

The building of the mountains is a result of the Eurasian plate moving over a piece of the African plate called the South Adria microplate.

The Croatian coast and the 1,185 Dalmatian Islands are popular places to visit for travelers and tourists.

Bennett and his team have also found that Italy’s boot heel is moving toward the Croatian coast.