UCI Chancellor’s Professor of Earth System Science James Randerson takes up his multi-faceted research on the complex havoc that wild fires wreak around the world. Many insights help us step up our game toward climate change. His particular regions of interest include Alaska, The Northwestern Territories in Canada, and the Amazon.

During the second half, a trio of UCI Cognitive Sciences and Logic & Philosophy of Science researchers: Ashley Jo Thomas, Barbara Sarnecka, and Kyle Stanford concerned about the epidemic of parental overreach, present their latest research on the morality of parental choices. The antidote to society’s willingness to implicate a parent not willing to meet steep supervisory standards might be: http://www.freerangekids.com/the-free-range-kids-parents-bill-of-rights/. Worthy reading: http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/collabra.33; follow their important work and further developments at: http://www.cogsci.uci.edu/cogdev/Sarnecka/index.html.