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WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 11, 2013
Student helps find new planet
VOLUME 107 • ISSUE 74
DOCTOR TO POLITICIAN UAMC surgeon who treated Giffords announces plans to run for Arizona House of Representatives
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CLASS STUDIES CONSCIOUSNESS OF MORTALITY
BY MARK ARMAO The Daily Wildcat
A UA graduate student’s research recently led to the discovery of a planet that has many astronomers rethinking planet formation. The planet, dubbed HD 106906 b, is a gas giant orbiting its parent star at a distance 650 times greater than the distance between the Earth and the sun. It was imaged with a telescope that utilizes several instruments developed at the UA. The finding of such a massive planet orbiting so far from its parent star is unprecedented, said Vanessa Bailey, the graduate student in the Department of Astronomy who led the research. In fact, the exoplanet, which is 11 times more massive than Jupiter, is the “most distantly orbiting planet that anybody’s been able to find around a single sun-like star,” Bailey said. The imaging of the planet was done using the Magellan Telescope in Chile, which uses unique, UA-developed technology to counteract the twinkling of the stars. Due to the natural turbulence of the atmosphere, stars appear blurry when imaged directly. The resulting glare can hide finer structures within the system, such as planets, said Laird Close, a professor in the Department of Astronomy. To eliminate the glare, Close uses the Magellan Adaptive Optics system, which deforms the small secondary mirror of the telescope 1,000 times per second to correct for the disturbances caused by the air. “You click a mouse button and it goes from being a blurry, fuzzy image to being an ultra-sharp image,” Close said, “and then faint little things around the star, like a planet, can be seen.” Using the MagAO technology, the team was able to image the planet in the infrared, as opposed to the visible light spectrum. The discovery of such an oddball planet came as a surprise to Close,
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DR. RANDALL FRIESE, associate medical director for the UAMC Trauma Center, announces his candidacy for the 9th district of the Arizona House of Representatives at the Arizona Inn on Tuesday. Friese was one of the surgeons who operated on Gabrielle Giffords after she was shot in January 2011.
BY ETHAN MCSWEENEY
day, including Pam Simon , the community outreach The Daily Wildcat coordinator for Giffords at the time. She was shot twice. Dr. Randall Friese is “When I hit the pavement, associate medical director for I snapped my eyes closed and the UAMC Trauma Center, I did not open my eyes until I associate professor of surgery was safely inside the trauma and a surgeon bay,” Simon said, who operated “and the first on former Rep. Education is the great equalizer ... it face I looked up Gabrielle Giffords into was a young opens many closed doors. after she was shot — Dr. Randall Friese, face with white in 2011 — and UAMC Trauma Center associate medical director hair [Friese].” now he’s working The events to add politician of that day led to his resume. oad , claiming six lives and Friese to start paying attention In a press conference wounding Giffords, who was to what was going in politics, held at the Arizona Inn speaking at an event there. specifically in the state capitol , yesterday, Friese announced Friese operated on several he said. his candidacy for the Arizona of the victims who came “I could see the sacrifice and House of Representatives in into the trauma center that PHYSICIAN, 3 the 9th Legislative District . He will be running as a Democrat under the slogan “Let’s Put a Doctor in the House!” Friese was working at the University of Arizona Medical Center on Jan. 8, 2011, when a shooting occurred at a Safeway at Ina and Oracle
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ARTS & LIFE - 7
STUDENTS LIVE IN RENOVATED GROCERY STORE
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UA researchers study Events, free global shrimp shortage food relieve
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finals stress
BY ADRIANA ESPINOSA
The Daily Wildcat
BY ETHAN MCSWEENEY
A team of UA researchers recently discovered what has been causing large amounts of shrimp in Asia to die and has led to a global shortage. A harmful new strand of bacteria — which evolved from a common strand of bacteria that the shrimp were already exposed to — is causing a disease called Early Mortality Syndrome. The disease has seriously affected shrimp hatcheries in Asia and is continuing to spread, causing a worldwide shrimp shortage. Early Mortality Syndrome occurs within a few days of taking the larval shrimp from the hatcheries to ponds, where they are supposed grow for about 120 to 140 days. However, when shrimp have the bacterial infection, they start dying within a week or two of going into the ponds, said Kevin Fitzsimmons, researcher and director for the College of Agriculture and Life PHOTO COURTESY OF LOC TRAN Sciences’ International Programs. UA RESEARCHERS are studying shrimp affected by The disease originated in China, Early Mortality Syndrome. The shrimp on the left carcausing the country’s shrimp industry to ries the disease and the one on the right is healthy. be the first one affected by an outbreak, in 2010. It then spread to Vietnam in sharing its findings on the disease 2011 and Thailand and Malaysia in 2012, and meeting with farmers, hatchery managers, government and has begun to spread representatives and globally. It was traced to scientists. The U of A Mexico and India this year, “We will go over how has been on Fitzsimmons said. to identify the disease, “Thailand and Vietnam’s the map for do the diagnostics, how production of shrimp has our work to manage it and how the dropped more than half, in shrimp farms in the industry can devastating the industry,” disease. get over this problem,” Fitzsimmons said. — Shane Burgess, Fitzsimmons said. The UA began College of Agriculture The global shrimp researching the shrimp and life Sciences dean shortage has even affected shortage about twolocal Tucson seafood and-a-half years ago, restaurant Mariscos after lead researcher Chihuahua . Delia Preciado and her Donald Lightner, professor of animal husband, who own one of the locations and comparative biomedical sciences, identified the bacteria, though he did not in town, said about half of their seafood yet know the cause, Fitzsimmons said. dishes include shrimp. Preciado said The research team is currently in Vietnam, SHRIMP, 3
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For those students who may be pulling out their hair or are otherwise stressed, Student Affairs will be offering events, deals and free food this week, including a free pancake breakfast. Finals Survival Week is an effort by Student Affairs to help support students this finals season, said Todd Millay , assistant director of the Arizona Student Unions. This includes Residence Life, the Student Recreation Center, the Arizona Student Unions and Campus Health. The week will begin with a Kick Off Event today from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. on the UA Mall that will include a zip line, craft tables, games, free samples of ice cream and therapy dogs. “It’s simply a way to help students have an opportunity to de-stress before finals,” Nick Sweeton, senior director of residential education , said, “and maybe have a little time to get their mind off finals for a bit.” A free pancake breakfast will also be offered for the first time Thursday night from 10 p.m. to midnight at Cactus Grill, Bear Down Kitchen and Park Ave Dining , Millay said. The idea for the free breakfast on Reading Day came from Jason Tolliver, director of Arizona Student Unions. The hope is that students who are up late studying will come in and take advantage of a free meal, consisting of pancakes, sausage and coffee, Millay said. “It’s a chance for [students] to take a break and have a little fun for a bit,” Millay said. Sweeton said he hopes the pancake breakfast will become a tradition that is held every semester. This is the second time Student Affairs has held Finals Survival Week, Sweeton said. In previous years, different offices put on similar events, but it wasn’t until last semester that all finals week events were
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