By TOM BEAL, Arizona Daily Star

TUCSON, Ariz. - A 44,000-year climate history recorded in a stalagmite in a wet cave in the Santa Rita Mountains lends credence to what scientists have long suspected: When the climate warms globally, the Southwest dries out.

TUCSON, Ariz. - What if you could grow fuel and food while cleaning wastewater and capturing unwanted carbon dioxide?

That's the promise of turning algae into a biofuel and the premise on which the Department of Energy is investing hundreds of millions of research dollars.

TUCSON, Ariz. - The first asteroid glimpsed by astronomers before it crashed into Earth was spotted with a couple of refurbished telescopes hooked up to some digital cameras by the Catalina Sky Survey at the University of Arizona.

TUCSON, Ariz. - Victims of cardiac arrest were twice as likely to survive when given continuous chest compressions by bystanders, according to a study released Sunday by two Arizona researchers.

At the border crossing or airport security checkpoint of the near future, you could be questioned by an avatar on a computer screen while an array of instruments unobtrusively measures your pulse, blood pressure, blink rate and retinal response.

The senior class at Tucson's City High School mulled over a number of possibilities for a $2,000 gift before deciding to keep its charity closer to home, helping the family of a former classmate.

Men may actually be from Mars -- women, too, not to mention dogs, cats and the teeniest microbes.
It's not a new theory. In fact, it got laughs in astronomy circles for decades, until researchers demonstrated that meteorites of just the right size and velocity could launch rocks into space and that microbes embedded deep in those rocks could survive a trip to another planet.

TUCSON, Ariz. -- Genetic technology developed to identify the remains of those killed in the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, will be enhanced in a University of Arizona genomics laboratory to solve a more complex puzzle - identification of families separated for generations after the Holocaust.

TUCSON, Ariz. -- Saguaros may benefit from another layer of protection to that already provided by their tough flesh, spined ribs, massive size, protective state laws, a federal haven and a vigilant public.Think microchips.

TUCSON, Ariz. -- Michael Bowling rolled the dice against the giant Monopoly maker and found justice in Providence.That's his view, and while it might be a tad overblown, the nearly nine-year battle he waged to protect his patent for "crystal dice" from infringement by toy giant Hasbro Inc. certainly seemed mythic to him.