Worlds Awaiting: 2017 Year in Review

Guests: Kif Augustine-Adams, JD, Law Professor, Brigham Young University; Luisa Fernanda Patoni-Rees, Law Student, Brigham Young University Despite the Trump Administration’s reputation, there was an uptick last year in the number of people showing up at the US border and requesting asylum – families in particular. Currently the US houses women and children seeking asylum in a couple of detention facilities in Texas. For the last couple of years, BYU law professors have taken students to volunteer their legal services at a detention facility in Dilley, Texas.

Guest: Paul Eastwick, PhD, Associate Professor of Psychology, University of California, Davis Sophisticated computer programs and “big data” make it possible to predict what shows we’ll enjoy on Netflix, what products we’ll buy on Amazon and even what candidate we’ll vote for in elections. But there’s one aspect of human preference that may just be impossible for computers to predict – mutual attraction between romantic partners. Now, dating websites are built on the idea they can match people. But new research suggests otherwise.

Guest: John Whalen, PhD, Research Professor of Ophthalmology, Roski Eye Institute, University of Southern California Of the soldiers wounded in combat in the Middle East, 13 percent had wounds to their eyes. Likewise, 13 percent of injured victims of the Boston Marathon bombing had eye wounds. In situations of mass trauma, medics and first responders have to treat life threatening wounds first, delaying attention to injuries to the eyes. But researchers at University of Southern California are developing an intervention—it’s a type of gel--that can be easily administered directly into the damaged eyeball, at the scene, essentially buying the patient time until they can receive the necessary surgery.

Guest: Koloa Wolfgramm, President, 2ft Prosthetics, Brigham Young University When he was four years old, Koloa Wolfgramm was diagnosed with a cancer that would ultimately require doctors to remove most of his leg and fit him with a prosthesis. But that didn’t stop him from becoming the captain of his high school basketball team and a Paralympic bobsledder. But, his own achievements aside, Koloa Wolfgramm also works with a BYU organization called 2ft Prosthetics to bring affordable prosthetics to amputees around the world.

Guest: Sara Austin, Graduate Student, English, University of Connecticut A generation ago, girls had Barbies and boys had action figures like GI Joe. In the last few years, Mattel, which makes Barbie, has come out with new toys for girls that are part action figure, part fashion doll based on characters from the popular series Monster High, Ever After High and DC Superhero Girls. These dolls have superpowers and back stories that make them a different kind of doll than Barbie ever was. And that’s empowering for the girls who play with them.