Masterpiece Cakeshop Wins in Supreme Court, Methane Dunes on Pluto, Killing Cancer with Arsenic

Guest: Brett Scharffs, JD, Rex E. Lee Chair and Professor of Law at BYU's J. Reuben Clark Law School, and Director of the International Center for Law and Religion Studies The Supreme Court ruled on a major religious freedom case today. Seven of the court’s nine justices sided with the owner of Masterpiece Cakeshop in Colorado, who refused to make a wedding cake for a same sex couple because he believed doing so would violate his religious beliefs.

Guest: Jani Radebaugh, PhD, Associate Professor of Geology, BYU New Horizons spacecraft sent back the first high-resolution photos of Pluto back in 2015. Looking at these pictures, BYU planetary scientist Jani Radebaugh thought something seemed familiar. Parts of Pluto looked an awful lot like the dunes of Death Valley, California, where she often takes her students on field trips. But Pluto was supposed to a frozen planet, not one with a shifting surface.

Guest: Joe McConnell, PhD, Research Professor of Hydrology at the Desert Research Institute At its height, the Roman Empire left its mark everywhere from England, to Portugal, to Iraq, Morocco, and the isles of the Mediterranean. Oh, and Greenland. Emperors like Nero and Julius Caesar never actually ruled over Greenland, but a record of the Roman economy’s strength dating back thousands of years is embedded in Greenland’s ancient ice.

Guest: Thomas O’Halloran, PhD, Charles E. and Emma H. Morrison Professor, Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences, and Director, Chemistry of Life Processes Institute, Northwestern University? The goal of treating cancer is to kill off the harmful cells without hurting the healthy ones. Most cancer treatments can’t do that very well and a lot of healthy cells get caught in the crossfire. So scientists are trying to figure out how to drop dangerous drugs like a special delivery from UPS right on the doorstep of a cancer cell. Chemist Thomas O’Halloran is experimenting with special deliveries of arsenic wrapped in tiny bubbles of fat.

Guest: Sheila Bock, PhD, Associate Professor in Interdisciplinary Studies, University of Nevada, Las Vegas Commencement ceremonies are an exercise in uniformity. Seen from the front, the graduates are an indistinguishable sea dressed in identical caps and gowns. But look at a group of 2018 graduates from the back and their individuality shouts at you from the flat tops of their caps. Folklorist Sheila Bock has documented the rise of this graduation cap-decorating fad. Share photos of decorated mortarboard caps for Bock’s research here.

Guest: Rod Gustafson, Film Reviewer at ParentPreviews.com In 1983, 23-year old Tami Oldham and her British fiancé Richard Sharp were sailing a yacht from Tahiti to San Diego when they ran into Hurricane Raymond. The new film "Adrift" stars Shailene Woodley as the young woman, lost at sea with a badly injured fiancé and slim chance of rescue.

Guests: Willie Harrison, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, BYU; Dave Brown, BYU Technology Transfer Office You’ve likely overheard someone talking on their phones at full volume while they walk around the grocery store or down the street, which suggests that people aren’t too concerned about the prospect of their cell conversations being eavesdropped on. But in some fields—like if you work at the State Department or CIA—secure wireless communications are a must. And in the not-too-distant future we’ll all have an incentive to be concerned about wireless security when everything from the garage door to your dishwasher is connected to the internet.