Cuba Transition, Painkillers and Birth Defects, BYU Animation

Cuban Tourism (1:03) Guest: Evan Ward, professor of Modern Latin American history and a visiting fellow at the Wheatley Institution here at BYU This week, the U.S. Government approved commercial ferry service between Florida and Cuba. It’s the first time in 50 years. Same goes for a direct charter flight Jet Blue announced yesterday between New York and Havana. The embargo that has prohibited Americans from travelling to or doing business with Cuba is lifting as the Obama administration works to “normalize relations” with the Caribbean nation. But you can’t book a trip to Cuba for your next vacation quite yet. Congress has yet to lift decades-long US ban on tourism travel, so only people with a special license from the US State Department are allowed to make the trip. American companies are eagerly awaiting the day Cuba is entirely open for US tourism. But Evan Ward says they might want to temper their expectations a bit. Painkillers and Birth Defects (21:11) Guest: Jennifer Lind, pharmacist and epidemiologist with the CDC's National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities Approximately 1/3 of women in the U.S. who are of child bearing age fill a prescription for a narcotic painkiller at least once a year, according to a recent report by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That figure is not necessarily alarming, until you consider that the CDC also says half of pregnancies in the U.S. are unplanned. Which means many women taking narcotic painkillers may also be in the early stages of pregnancy and not realize it—opening the door to serious birth defects in their babies. Spider Silk (30:38) Guests: Randy Lewis, professor of Biology and director of the Lewis Lab at Utah State University Justin Jones, senior research scientist in the Lewis Lab. Their team’s research on producing sythnetic spider silk appeared recently in the American Chemical Society’s journal Biomacromolecules The amazing spider silk of Peter Parker’s superhero alter-ego was pure Marvel Comics invention and fodder for the daydreams of many a young boy. But spider silk really is tremendously strong and holds great promise for making everything from surgical tools to artificial tendons to safer airbags and better body armor. The trouble, of course, is training an army of spiders to spin their silk on demand. Enter researchers at Utah State University’s Lewis Lab. They’ve figured out how to make synthetic spider silk, but they’ve been stumped for a while on how to make enough of it to really be useful. Now they’ve cracked the problem and they’re on the line now to explain. American Heritage: The Gilded Age (50:00) Guest: Grant Madsen, BYU History professor We get insights from BYU history professor Grant Madsen, who is currently teaching an introductory American History course. Each week features a new topic and a deeper understanding of significant milestones American history. BYU Animation (1:14:11) Guests: Kelly Loosli, professor of animation at BYU and director of the Center for Animation. You can see previous animated shorts from the center at studentfilms.byu.edu Garrett Hoyos, a senior in BYU’s animation program and director of the award-winning short film “Ram’s Horn” Hollywood’s animation houses—Pixar, Dreamworks, Disney—find themselves turning increasingly to an unlikely source for new talent: Provo, Utah.  Short films from BYU’s Center for Animation consistently win student Emmy and Oscar Awards. Pixar President Ed Catmull has visited the campus twice in recent years, praising the talent and work ethic of BYU’s animation students. Their latest winning entry is a comedic short about a cocky mountaineer squaring off against an unexpected rival in his quest toward the peak of a daunting mountain. It has a decidedly “Looney Toons” feel. If Wile E. Coyote suddenly scrambled into the picture, you wouldn’t be surprised at all.  “Ram’s Horn” is the name of the Emmy-winning short film.