Jeffery Bennett & Judy Dutton

Tonight, Inquiry welcomes back JEFFREY BENNETT. He served as the first director of the Program in Quantitative Reasoning and Mathematical Sills at the University of Colorado. He holds a PhD in astrophysics and is the author of several books. His latest children’s book is titled THE WIZARD WHO SAVED THE WORLD is a wonderful science-based book that encourages young readers to get involved in mathematics, science and to help solve the world’s large scale problems. MATH FOR LIFE: CRUCIAL IDEAS YOU DIDN’T LEARN IN SCHOOL is a book for adult math phobics and math loathers. It is Bennett’s contention that we are simply not taught the math we actually need to know to get by as adults: how to figure taxes, understanding statistics we read about in newspapers, how to plan a budget and how to understand the national debt. All these topics involve mathematics, and we need to understand them in adult everyday life, but typically all we are taught in school is about quadratic equations and trigonometry. Tune in tonight and learn about what math we need not the math we are taught.

It is scientifically well established that a mother’s own breast milk is  superior to formula for a baby’s health. It’s full of proteins, antibodies and even anti-cancer chemicals not found in any substitute. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends breastfeeding children from 6 months to a year. But many women find this impractical or medically impossible. There are well established “milk banks” where a mother can purchase donated milk, but it is very costly to feed a baby this way. The demand has far outstripped the supply. Recently there has sprung up an ever-growing on-line unregulated market for human breast milk as women are selling and buying it from total strangers as a way to both save and make money. And therein lies all sorts of potential serious medical problems. Tonight’s returning guest is science writer and journalist JUDY DUTTON who has written a recent piece for Wired Magazine about this subject LIQUID GOLD: THE BOOMING MARKET FOR HUMAN BREAST MILK. Tune in and find out why women are participating in this potentially risky enterprise.