National Park Graffiti, Gun Safety, Dinosaurs in Hollywood

National Park Graffiti on the Rise Guest: Mark Miller, PhD, Chief of Resources Stewardship and Science for the National Park Service’s Southeast Utah Group People are a threat to National Parks. Specifically, those who can’t seem to resist the urge to make a mark on our nation’s most natural treasures. In the last month, rangers at Arches National Park in Southern Utah discovered large graffiti on a famous arch – names and phrases etched so deeply into the red rock, it might be impossible to erase. The Park’s superintendent says there’s been a “tidal wave of graffiti” at Arches and other National Parks in recent years. Joshua Tree, Zion – even the Grand Canyon – have been defaced by vandals who often post pictures of their activity on social media.  Gun Safety with Parents Guest: Alice Kuo, MD, Professor at University of California Los Angeles’ Medical School A judge in New Jersey yesterday awarded more than half a million dollars in damages to the family of a six-year-old boy who died when a four-year-old neighbor accidently fired his dad’s gun. Already this year, at least 96 children under the age of 18 have picked up a firearm and accidentally shot themselves or someone else. That’s according to news reports compiled by a gun-control group called “Everytown for Gun Safety.” Tragically, many of those accidental shootings end in the death of a child.  So, pediatricians feel increasingly compelled to bring up gun safety in check-ups with the families they care for. But not everyone likes that. Florida passed a law in 2011 prohibiting doctors from asking about guns. It’s being challenged in court and will go before the US Court of Appeals next month.  Dinosaurs in Hollywood Guest: Michael Habib, PhD, Professor at the University of Southern California School of Medicine and a Research Associate at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles’ Dinosaur Institute The Jurassic Park film franchise has inspired who-knows-how-many young dinosaur fans. The hands down favorite is the T-Rex, of course, because it’s the king of them all. If you’re going to love dinosaurs, the bigger, scarier and meaner the better, eh? That was the whole premise of the latest Jurassic film, where geneticists created the Indominus Rex. Hollywood can’t seem to help itself, even when it’s depicting real dinosaurs, from stretching the facts, says paleontologist Michael Habib. And that’s too bad, because dinosaurs are plenty cool without the fictitious stuff movies make up about them.  The Apple Seed Guest: Sam Payne, Host of BYU Radio’s “The Apple Seed” Sam Payne joins us in studio each week with insights on tellers and stories. Ransomware Guest: Anthony Vance, PhD, Associate Professor of Information Systems at BYU Ransomware attacks are on the rise in the US where hackers act like high-tech document kidnappers. They infect computers, encrypt all documents and demand hundreds – or thousands of dollars – in order to unlock them. If you think it’d never happen to you, well you’re wrong. Police departments, city offices, hospitals and companies of all stripes – even tech companies – have fallen victim. Along with scores of private individuals. The FBI received more than 2,400 complaints of ransomware last year –which was a 33 percent increase over 2014. And those victims lost and estimated $24.1 million in the attacks.  Robot Surgery Guest: Simon Leonard, PhD, Assistant Research Professor of Computer Science at Johns Hopkins University We’re totally comfortable having robots make all the parts of our cars and iPhones. We’re even warming to the idea of self-driving cars. But how would you feel about going in for surgery where all the cutting and stitching is done by a robot? Not a surgeon using a robotic tool to help with parts of the procedure – that’s pretty common today. I’m talking about a robot doing the whole thing, without any human involved. That’s a little unnerving, isn’t it? But it’s time we got over that, because some researchers at the Children’s National Medical Center in Washington and Johns Hopkins University recently tested a robot’s skill sewing up a pig intestine . . . and the robot did a better job than a human surgeon.  STAR is the robot’s name – it stands for Smart-Tissue Autonomous Robot.