As companies like Waymo ramp up tests of their self-driving cars in Phoenix, state and federal officials continue to debate when “good” will be “good enough.”
Now, a report from the RAND Corporation says pumping our brakes and holding out for the perfect automated car is a mistake.
Read/listen to my full story at KJZZ’s Arizona Science Desk:
Waiting For Perfect Self-Driving Cars Could Cost Lives
Researchers have found a genetic pattern in the saguaro and its cousins that could explain why many cactus species resist simple classification.
Plants like the cactus are tricky. Distant relatives can look like twins or evolve similar traits, thanks to phenomena like parallel and convergent evolution, both of which entail species evolving the same traits independently of one another.
Read/listen to my full story at KJZZ’s Arizona Science Desk:
Saguaro Genome Shows Why Many Cactus Species Are Hard To Classify
Humans have long fixated on which mental traits distinguish us from other animals. Now, University of Arizona researchers are asking what our canine companions can tell us about ourselves.
In this feature, I take you behind the scenes of this laboratory and introduce you to some of its remarkable minds, both two- and four-legged.
Read/listen to my full story at KJZZ’s Arizona Science Desk:
Arizona Scientists Study Dog Minds To Better Understand Our Own
Researchers are developing a class of painkillers that could offer an alternative to opioids, or at least way to taper down their dosage.
Read/listen to my full story at KJZZ’s Arizona Science Desk:
UA Researchers Seek More Targeted Path to Fighting Pain
Bigger, hotter wildfires — and more of them — are becoming the new normal, and a combination of climate change, sub-par fire management and budget limitations are to blame, says an October 2017 National Wildlife Federation report.
Read/listen to my full story at KJZZ’s Arizona Science Desk:
Why U.S. Wildfires Are Bigger, Hotter And More Frequent
