Tempe campus

A few weeks ago, Arizona State University’s Julie Ann Wrigley Global Futures Laboratory received a pleasant surprise — a $5 million surprise.

As a young woman, Arizona State University alumna Lisa Clark fondly remembers spending the weekends with her dad riding dirt bikes in the Arizona desert, tinkering in the garage and working on cars.

Over the years her interest in motorsports remained but took a backseat as she became a mother, a successful business owner and a real estate agent. In 2013, when her daughters were grown and moved out, Clark decided it was time to start a new chapter and further explore her passion for motorsports.

A new paper from the science team of NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover details how the hydrological cycle of the now-dry lake at Jezero Crater is more complicated and intriguing than originally thought. The findings are based on detailed imaging the rover provided of some prominent escarpments – long, steep slopes – in the delta that formed from sediment accumulating at the confluence of an ancient river that stretched about 120 miles (200 kilometers), feeding a lake that was 21 miles (35 kilometers) wide.

For one evening only on Oct. 16, ASU 365 Community Union and Hawker Street Market will join forces to present a unique night market experience alongside a special screening of Oscar-nominated film "Minari" on the field at Sun Devil Stadium. Grab a friend, bring a blanket and come hungry to this one-of-a-kind experience.

The air was buzzing with the sound of bright minds brainstorming processes to solve hurdles to space accessibility at the Interplanetary Initiative’s "Big Questions" workshop on Sept. 24.

With its signature event, the Interplanetary Initiative brings people across disciplines together to begin to develop projects for which they can then apply for funding from the initiative.

Last week, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced a delisting of 23 species that are believed to be extinct in the United States, joining about 900 species that have been documented as extinct around the world.

Even though the Fish and Wildlife Service produces this list annually, the numbers are becoming accelerated, according to Leah Gerber, a professor of conservation science in Arizona State University’s School of Life Sciences.

The 2021 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded on Oct. 3 to David Julius and Ardem Patapoutian "for their discoveries of receptors for temperature and touch." To celebrate, the journal Nature Portfolio presented a collection including further exciting research focused on different aspects of TRP and PIEZO channels, proteins that sense these ubiquitous stimuli.

The James Webb Space Telescope is the largest, most powerful and complex space science telescope ever built. It is targeted to launch into space from Kourou, French Guiana, on Dec. 18. 

Webb will serve as the premier deep space observatory for the next decade, exploring every phase of cosmic history — from within our solar system to the most distant observable galaxies in the early universe, and everything in between.

It was 60 years ago, in 1961, and the space race was on. Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first man in space, followed weeks later by American astronaut Alan Shepard. President John F. Kennedy challenged the nation to land a man on the moon by the end of the decade.

Robert Spring, professor in Arizona State University's School of Music, Dance and Theatre, received the International Clarinet Association’s highest honor, the Honorary Membership Award, at the association's 2021 annual conference. The award, a lifetime achievement counterpart, is given to clarinetists worldwide who have made a significant difference in the clarinet world through performance, teaching and service.