Renewable Energy, Comparing Children, Lightbulb Warnings

Guest: Mark Z. Jacobson, Ph.D., Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Stanford, Co-Founder of the Solutions Project  Renewable Energy is Top of Mind today as we continue our weeklong series on the environment. Many states have short and long-term goals in place to transition some of their energy sources away from fossil fuels like coal and gas to renewable sources like wind and solar.  As a distant goal, the Group of 7 industrial nations – which includes the United States, Canada, France and Germany – recently agreed to work toward a carbon-free energy system over the course of the century. But researchers at Stanford University say it doesn’t have to take that long for America. They’ve created a roadmap for all 50 states to get to 100% renewable energy-dependent by 2050.

Guest: Alex Jensen, Ph.D., Professor in the School of Family Life at BYU Good parenting can feel like a minefield at times. Parents want to encourage their kids, praise them, protect them from harm – but psychologists say those goals are sometimes at odds with each other. One thing’s for sure – parents should never play favorites. However, there’s new research showing how easy it is for parents to show favoritism without even realizing it. And the subtle language they use in communicating with their kids can affect how academic performance and future pursuits in life.

Guest: Paolo Sassone-Corsi, Ph.D., Director of the Center for Epigenetics and Metabolism at UC Irvine It’s expected to see warning labels on cigarettes, airbags, and fireworks…but on lightbulbs?  A Florida company called Lighting Science Group announced recently it will start putting warning labels on all of its light bulbs, alerting customers to the dangers of artificial light and pointing them to a website for more information.

Guest: Katrina Dlugosch, Ph.D., Assistant Professor at the University of Arizona in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology  Moneywort, also known as Creeping Jenny, is a tenacious vine-like plant, and a quick search on the internet reveals it to be one of thousands of plant species not native to North America and therefore considered invasive. The proliferation of non-native plant species is considered a classic tale of unintended consequences. Some well-meaning colonist plants a seed from home and years later, it’s taking over the landscape, even supplanting the native species.

Guest: Michel Maharbiz, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences at the University of California, Berkeley  Bed sores are a critical concern for people who are bed-ridden or hospitalized for long periods of time. Also known as “pressure sores” they can lead to serious infection and even death. What’s particularly worrisome is that by the time you see signs of a bedsore on the surface of the skin, it’s usually too late to get a handle on the infection. Researchers at UC Berkeley and UC San Francisco have developed a smart bandage that can detect tissue damage related to bedsores before it’s visible to doctors.

Guest: Clark Asay, J.D., Associate Professor of Law at Brigham Young University  There’s a new Mission Impossible movie coming out next month. Tom Cruise has played the central character in that franchise for more than a decade. His performance will be key to the success of this latest film. So here’s a question to chew on – does Tom Cruise own the rights to that performance? Can an actor copyright his work on screen? Or does the copyright belong to the writer or director or producer? What would happen if actors could copyright their performances? If Tom Cruise saw the final cut of the Mission Impossible movie and didn’t like the way it turned out, could he then demand that it not be released based on his ownership of the performance?