Public Defenders in Crisis, Plastic and Fat Babies, 3D Printing

Public Defenders in Crisis Guest: Maybell Romero, JD,Visiting Law Professor,BYU Across the country, programs that provide legal defense to low-income people accused of crimes are themselves being sued or investigated. Most recently, the American Civil Liberties Union has filed a proposed class-action lawsuit against Utah’s public defender system, calling it underfunded and unconstitutional. Can Plastic Make Us Fat? Guest: Mahua Choudhury, PhD, Assistant Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Texas A&M University’s Health Science Center.  More than a third of all US adults are considered obese. We’re well-aware of the need to eat healthy and exercise, but what if there is some other factor lurking in our lives that contributes to our expanding waistlines?  A recent study on animal stem cells found that a component of the plastics used in food processing equipment could be tied to rising obesity rates.  Building Shelter on Mars Guest: Robert Orwoll and Richard Kiefer, Professors Emeriti of William & Mary’s Department of Chemistry Fifteen years from now NASA hopes to be sending humans to Mars, but first scientists must figure out how to protect astronauts and equipment from the intense radiation they’ll be exposed to beyond Earth’s orbit. One of the many projects receiving NASA money to solve the radiation problem is happening at a private firm called International Scientific Technologies.  The company has charged two professors emeriti to figure out how to make bricks from Martian soil for building shelters to keep people safe from radiation and other elements on the Red Planet. Germany: Historical and Modern Migrant Hub Guest: Allison Schmidt, PhD, historian of migration, begins postdoc at the German Historical Institute in Washington D.C. this August Throughout the current migrant crisis, Germany has been both a key transit point and a destination for people fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East and Africa. German officials say they’ve welcomed more than a million refugees during the crisis and half of them are seeking asylum to stay permanently. This is not an accident. Germany has long played a central role in migration and was one of the first countries to come up with a processing system for refugees and migrants. Those systems have impacted the flow of refugees around the Western world for over a century. 3D Printing for Dummies Guest: Michael Jones, PhD, Associate Professor of Computer Science at Brigham Young University; Casey Walker, BYU civil engineering student Playing with playdoh is so satisfying, isn’t it? In the lab of BYU computer science professor Michael Jones, sculpting with clay is more than just play. Even in this digital era with software that can create 3-D models right on your screen, it turns out there’s still a lot of value in being able to hold the design in your hand, turn it over, make sure the curves are right and the buttons are in the best spot. Jones and his colleagues have created a design technique that marries clay sculpting with 3D printing.  Worlds Awaiting: Summer Teen Romance Novels  Guest: Rachel Wadham, Host of the BYUradio show Worlds Awaiting and BYU Education and Juvenile Collections Librarian Regency romances for teens in the tradition of Jane Austen. Keeping the Castle (Keeping the Castle, #1)  by Patrice Kindl Love, Lies and Spies  by Cindy Anstey  Newt's Emerald  by Garth Nix