Science and Innovation

A new study shows the virus that causes COVID-19 arrived in Arizona in at least eleven separate introductions in February and March. That’s the result of genetic detective work done by scientists at Arizona’s three state universities and the Translational Genomics Research Institute in Flagstaff. KNAU’s Melissa Sevigny spoke with Jolene Bowers of TGen North about how sequencing the genome of the coronavirus can help public health professionals track the disease through time and space.

Students in the Flagstaff Unified School District are doing their coursework entirely online at least through October 9th because of the pandemic. KNAU’s Melissa Sevigny reports, that’s been a challenge for Native American students who live on reservations with unreliable or nonexistent Internet access.

The inventor of GORE-TEX material has died. Robert Gore, a chemical engineer who invented a waterproof, breathable fabric now famous for outdoor gear and patches for heart repair, died last Thursday at the age of eighty-three. KNAU’s Melissa Sevigny reports. 

In the early days of the pandemic Coconino County recruited more than a dozen students from Northern Arizona University to work as contact tracers. Melinda Smith, a Ph.D. candidate in NAU’s Interdisciplinary Health program, was part of the monitoring team that follows up with people who have come into contact with someone who tested positive for COVID-19. KNAU’s Melissa Sevigny spoke with Smith about how the work could be emotionally difficult… and also become politicized over time.

New projections from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation show the chances of future water shortages on the Colorado River have risen sharply following a dry year. KNAU’s Melissa Sevigny reports.