If you see a mustached man shaking down a tree on campus and filling a five-gallon bucket with acorns, thats Thomas SmithBYU plant and wildlife sciences professorgetting ready to make cookies.

Acorn-flour chocolate chip is his specialty. My students really flip out over those, he says.

Foraging is one of Smiths fortes, an aptitude he shares with the apex predator that has dominated his career. Smith has spent decades studying bears: black bears, grizzlies, polar bears, andarguably the most aggressive of allIndias sloth bears. His research takes him to extremes, be it the sub-60-degree Arctic, where he has scratched a polar bears nose, or the Katmai National Park and Preserve in Alaska, where hes bumped into a dozen bruins in one square mile.

Remarkably, hes still in one piece. Look at me! Smith exclaims. No prosthetic or eye patch!

And no, hes never been attackedbut hes had close calls. As a guest on

, Smith relayed his most dangerous bear encounter with his signature humor: [I was] sitting in a helicopter with two tranquilized bears that were waking up, and the pilot couldnt find a place to land. I said to him, These two are going [skydiving] with no parachute in about one minute.

The jests come rapid-fire with Smith, but he loves his bears. The focus of his research is human-bear conflict. In short, saving human and bear lives. And the creativity in his scientific research is unmatched. With an Igloo-cooler hack, for instance, Smith completely changed den observation. Plus, he can fix a snowmobile (or whatever breaks) in the middle of nowhere in nothing flat. Weve always thought of Tom as the MacGyver of our world, says Geoff York, vice president of science and policy at Polar Bears International.

Its a dream job for Smith, even if it requires an electric fence around his camp. Or maybe because it does.

Growing up in Portland, Indiana, Smith caught turtles and carpfor keeps. One time we flooded the whole basement, he says. It was three feet deep, and it was stocked with fish.

He and his five siblings remodeled their house; it was DIY by grade-schoolers. They added secret passageways and trap doors, even a hole in the floor, which they covered with a rug so they could trick friends. I kid you not! Smith says with a laugh. This was pretty amazing stuff.

Parental guidance was scant. His father left when Smith was young, and his mother was in the clutches of alcoholism. It was basically like an orphanage with no adults, he says. We were just untethered kids. Admittedly, it wasnt ideal, but Smith doesnt want anyone to feel sorry for him. I had a great time, he remarks.

Smiths childhood could rival Huck Finns. Smith and his siblings rafted the local river with an old fridge for a vessel and built a treehouse 30 feet up with wood gathered from neighborhood alleys. When his older brother bought a tent, they took to the woods and stayed for long stints at a time.

They may have had holes in their shoes, but the Smith kids excelled academically. I was so far and above my buddies, I started intentionally missing questions, he says; it eased their razzing. Still, he took advanced classes in high schoolincluding three years of Latinand set his sights on college, gaining admission to Purdue.

First though, a cross-country bike ride would change his life.

Just after graduating from high school, Smith and his buddies announced they were bicycling to the West Coast. My skeptical mother said, Yeah, Ill see you in a week, says Smith. They rolled back into town 77 days and 6,000 miles later with photographic proof of their adventures.

One snapshot was from a stop at Temple Square. In the photo, 18-year-old Smith looks like a wild man, his skin sunned from riding shirtless, his hair past his shoulders.

He has another shot taken less than two years later at the same spotthis time with a missionary haircut.

Smith took the discussions during his first semester at Purdue. Halfway through one page of the Book of Mormon, he knew. God was always a couple steps ahead of me, Smith says. And He has been ever since.

Smiths next steps: a mission to Japan, then transferring to BYU. He met his wife, Cynthia Cain Smith, on the stairs in the old John A. Widtsoe Building.

As a student, Smith did janitorial work on campus, but he made bank in the summers working in the commercial fishing canneries in Alaska. Cynthia joined him. I worked on the slime line, she says. The next summer, the newlyweds captained a tender ship, delivering gas and groceries to fishing boats and bringing the freshest catch back to the cannery.

The initial plan was med school, but Smith ultimately chose to pursue a different kind of doctorate that aligned with his passion: a PhD in wildlife from BYU.

Smith started out by studying caribou in Alaska during his masters degree. Later, for his PhD dissertation, he tracked Utahs bighorn sheep under the tutelage of Dr. Jerran Flinders. As a doctoral researcher, Smith studied bighorns at Flaming Gorge, Utah, where he and Cynthia lived in a tent on top of Bear Mountain. Ive spent most of my life under a tarp, he says. They brought their first baby home to that tent, and Smith made a toddler zipline through the trees.

Once Smith completed his PhD at BYU, the National Park Service hired him to be the research scientist for Katmai National Park and Preserve in Alaska. It is brown bear national park, he says, explaining that he had to carefully pivot his research focus from prey to predator. There he found his calling.

As a scientist, Smith is up for pretty much anything. In his favorite study to date, that meant making a beeline for black bears. Tourists at Kenai Fjords National Park were camping in bear country, and wildlife managers wanted to know at what distance the animals were disturbed. Essentially,

Smith picked up a laser range finder and went right at them to find out.

Up until 90 meters, you could have been a T-Rex stomping around, says Smith. By 30 meters, however, most bears fled. But big, dominant males? They just sit there like, Bring it on, little man! explains Smith. Wed get within 10 meters and break off the approach, not wishing to agitate these large bears.

Smiths colleagues also praise his ingenuity. Monitoring polar bear dens, for example, used to be a frigid stakeout, mostly watching snow blow, says York. Smith rigged up what may have been the first wildlife cams, fashioning a cooler to hold a home video camerathe ones with cassette tapesand three car batteries to run it. And it worked at temperatures as low as 60 degrees below zero. We still use some of that original footage because its so good, says York.

Smiths publications have been prolific. He created a database logging 150 years of North American bear attacks; he knows every mauling. He also knows bear behavior. Among his findings: When it comes to deterrents, bear spray trumps firearms for most people; your dog is not going to save you; and you can ditch the bear bells.

For that last one, Smith hid in a blind on a cliff, jingling bells from a fishing line; the first passing bears, a mama and cubs, didnt even flinch. At first, I thought, A family of deaf bears! Smith quips. But when Smith snapped a twig, heads whipped. He found that the bears only paid attention to sounds that mattered, and bear bells were not among those sounds. He's currently testing novel deterrents, like drones and ultrasonic sound frequencies.

He is also compiling all the compelling reasons for keeping bears in the landscape. Bears are underappreciated, he says. They are ecological engineers!

Ever the educator, Smith strives to disseminate his work. He accepts countless interview requests from the likes of

, and

. Hes also been on

and Animal Planet.

Probably the GOAT of biology teachers, reads the first student evaluation on Rate My Professors that comes up for Smith. He is a hit on campus.

His environmental biology (PWS 150) sections are packed. But the real tell is Smiths animal behavior class, a 500-level graduate course that has become very popular with undergraduates. Students just know theres going to be some kind of fun engagement when he takes the podium, BYU plant and wildlife sciences professor Val Anderson explains.

Or when he takes the ATV, as the case may be in PWS 135: Safety Certifications for Field Biologists. The courseSmiths brainchildis now required curriculum for all wildlife majors. With more students hailing from suburbia and fewer from farms, Smith saw the need to build practical skills, such as administering first aid, backing up a trailer, and handling firearms. The class is unforgettable, says former student R. Adriana Dungan (MS 19, PWS), and not just for the snow machines. Tom, the person, left the most lasting impact, she says. He would tell the most fantastic stories.

The practical knowhow came in handy when Dungan joined Smiths research lab. He sent us to trap bears, she says. Which led to marshmallow fluff.

We had to come up with our own bait, Dungan explains. Nothing beat the sticky stuff. That first week we caught us a bear! Dungan says. Even the Division of Wildlife Resources professionals who responded were impressed. But no one was more excited than Smith. We called him up, and he just loved it, she shares. He was all about our creativity.

His grad students agree; Smith trains them up, then he steps back and lets them struggleand succeed. The opportunities Smith forges for students are singular and surreal. Few academics are lucky enough to do polar bear work, for examplelet alone their students. Tom, York emphasizes, is a big deal. According to Rusty Robinson (PhD 17, PWS), who worked with Smith on locating polar bear dens using thermal infrared, there was no ego, no grunt work. Crawling in the den wasnt beneath him, says Robinson. It was just fun for him. He was in there, and he assumed you wanted to explore these things like he did.

Foraging in the hills up Diamond Fork Canyon in Utah County, Smith is like a kid in a candy store as he leads the Great Salt Lake Audubon Society in a class on wild edibles. He picks rose hips, which taste a bit like Fruit Roll-Ups, and collects pine needles for teawhich can be used to stave off scurvy, he points out. To know a plant, he says, You have to pick it, sniff it, eat it, and sleep on it.

Hell harvest anywhere, really. The silver maple in his front yard? I make it pay rent, he says. Alaska? Its a fungus paradise, he shares. BYUs campus? Its a veritable buffet; Smith jokingly calls his campus spoils his tithing rebate.

And his enthusiasm is contagious. Smiths BYU students bring him their own foraged finds; one even went an entire semester eating nothing but foraged foods (though he did count ward event leftovers). Each fall Smith sells out a wild edibles class, offered through the Bean Life Science Museum, that eats its way across campus.

His Thanksgiving definitely gets wild. As BYU students, he and a buddy hauled a raw turkey into the Maze, the least accessible district of the Canyonlands National Park. Its now an annual Thanksgiving tradition, 40 years strong. Cynthia says she cant imagine going back to a dining roomshe doesnt want to offend, but she did use the word

We get primitive out there, says Smith. They explore canyons and ancient dwellings. They throw hatchets, knives, and spears. Cynthia plays the ocarinaan ancient woodwind instrument that Smith, an ardent student of Native American arts, makes out of his garage at home. Smith also spends time knapping, shaping obsidian into arrowheads and knife bladesjust as he would in the field, with students, or just about anywhere he sits down.

Ive always enjoyed a closeness with nature, says Smith. He was out finding arrowheads in fields as a kid, after all. Out of doors, the gregarious Smith gets quiet, even soulful, slowing down to appreciate and point out things others tend not to notice. Nature, he shares, is one of the threads that runs through his life. The other? My membership in the Church, without a question, Smith shares. Its been the drumbeat.

On an unseasonably cold afternoon in the spring of 2011, a catastrophic earthquake and tsunami struck Japan. It was a bone-chilling magnitude 9.1 quakethe largest and deadliest earthquake ever recorded in Japan. Once it subsided, sirens blared eerily, warning everyone to expect aftershocks and evacuate to higher ground before the first of several imminent seismic sea waves triggered by the earthquake crested the shore.

But because of inadequate emergency preparedness protocols, the faculty, staff, and students at Okawa Elementary School waited too long before responding to the sirens and chose to gather down by a river rather than moving to higher ground at a nearby hill. Those two decisions proved devastating, leaving very few survivors.

Hearing about these preventable deaths was really heartbreaking for me, says Dr. Sarah Hall, a BYU public health professor. If people had known what to do in advance, there wouldnt have been a delay. Teachers could have directed students to walk up the hill, and the vast majority of people would have survived. This situation, and those like it from other destructive natural disasters, motivated Hall to take action. Alongside geology professor Ron Harris and geography professor Chad Emmett, she worked with an interdisciplinary team to cultivate effective disaster mitigation strategies that help communities recognize natural warning signs, respond appropriately to earthquakes and tsunamis, and save lives.

Together they traveled to Indonesia with several of their students to map existing tsunami evacuation signage, identify safe evacuation zones based on inundation modeling, and conduct a baseline assessment of community earthquake and tsunami knowledge. With that data, they approached government leaders, local businesses, community centers, and schools to raise awareness, collaboratively craft effective emergency plans, and conduct tsunami evacuation simulations. They ran a campaign they created called 20-20-20 that shared simple, memorable guidelines for tsunami response. Generally, if the earth shakes for 20 seconds or more, explains Hall, you have around 20 minutes to evacuate to an elevation of at least 20 meters to reach safety.

They also collaborated with faculty and students from Universitas Pembangunan Nasional Veteran, a university in Indonesia, to write new words to local songs in Indonesian and create fun, interactive activities that explained earthquake and tsunami preparedness. BYU students were paired with Indonesian students to work on the project. Many of the Indonesian students were Muslim, and it was a great experience for our students to see what similarities we have in lifestyle and beliefs, says Hall with a smile. It was also nice for people over there to learn about our faith.

Hall felt guided to meet key people in Indonesia who became essential to the teams success. Those connections opened opportunities for them to collect vital data and share their research in a meaningful way so that they could help community members adequately prepare for a disaster. God puts all the right people in the right place at the right time to make these projects possible, says Kenyon Chipman (PH 26), a student working with Dr. Hall.

In addition to her work in Indonesia, Hall and several undergraduate students are undertaking efforts to help people in their local community in Utah prepare for earthquakes. Research suggests that Utah is likely to experience a major earthquake within the next 50 years. If a 7.0 magnitude earthquake were to strike near the Salt Lake area, predictions estimate nearly 10,000 life-threatening injuries, 84,000 families displaced from their homes, and tens of billions of dollars of damage, Chipman shares.

Yet, with the current predominant attitudes and approaches for disaster mitigation in the state, many are not nearly as prepared as they believe. People dont think about earthquakes happening in Utah. Theres this mindset that it wont happen where I live, student researcher Alec Haynie (PH 26) says. We have this preconception that the best thing you can do for any natural disaster is have a 72-hour kit, adds Chipman. Its our Band-Aid for everything, but theres a lot more that we can do to be prepared.

After referencing the Churchs efforts to fortify the foundation of the Salt Lake Temple, Chipman emphasizes that if prophets and apostles of Jesus Christ are focusing on preparing Utah for the forces of nature, we should be preparing Utah and our families for future forces of nature as well.

Halls team is currently developing emergency preparedness videos to raise awareness and provide people with actionable strategies for staying safe. Our goal is to provide effective public health communication that mitigates fear and promotes individual and community action, Brianna Richey (PH 26) affirms. The team also intends to create social media content, lesson plans, and handouts. Ultimately, they hope to connect with Utah emergency preparedness coordinators throughout The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to help members in each ward become better prepared. Contributing to messages that help people feel prepared and empowered is really important, adds Richey.

Working on this research is deeply satisfying for Hall because shes seen firsthand its ability to change perspectives and save lives. It reminds her of a scripture in Doctrine and Covenants: If ye are prepared ye shall not fear.

This scriptures powerful message resonates with her desire to help individuals and communities face the forces of nature with courage and conviction. We just want people to have the confidence, skills, and knowledge that they need to be prepared rather than scared, Hall clarifies. A hazard like an earthquake doesnt have to be a disaster if were prepared.

Learn how you can prepare your family for an earthquake here.

I would like to talk to you today about wisdom and the pieces that need to play into it for us to travel on a road that takes us where God wants us to beto have not just knowledge, because knowledge is not sufficient, but also to have understanding, to have a moral compass, and to have common sense and experience. That is what wisdom calls us to. In order to do this, I will discuss my own journey in science, how I came to be a Christian, the current polarized state of our nation, and how to find our way back.

I studied chemistry in graduate school, getting a PhD in physical chemistry. And then I realized that the most important scientific example of a chemical is DNA, the amazing information molecule of all living things. Your genome, which is all your DNAmade up of three billion As, Ts, Cs, and Gsis sufficient to carry you from being a single cell to what are you now. That is an astounding thing to be able to say.

Then I trained as a physician because I wanted to apply this kind of life science to human medicine. I joined the faculty at the University of Michigan to try to uncover causes of genetic diseases that, in the 1980s, were really hard to understand. In 1989, my lab, along with a group in Toronto, discovered the cause of cystic fibrosis, a discovery which I am overjoyed to tell you means that 90 percent of people with cystic fibrosis today have the opportunity to live an almost normal lifespan.

My lab has also been studying a disease called progeria, the most dramatic form of premature aging, which causes you to age about seven times the normal rate and to die of heart attacks or strokes by about your mid-teens. Within a year we will have the first trial of in vivo gene editing to try to fix the one letter thats misspelled in the entire genome that causes this disorder. Its all very exciting!

I was asked to come to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to lead the Human Genome Project, a truly bold scientific effort to read out all three billion letters so that wed be able to better understand how it works. Over the course of 13 years, we were successful in reading out the first copy of the human genome, which meant I got to celebrate the accomplishments of the 2,500 scientists in six countries and 20 research institutes that I oversaw for this project. Were now trying to use our genome to understand things about medicine, and that is moving forward at a prodigious rate.

After that, I was asked to lead the entire NIH by President Barack Obama, which meant I had to learn about things like neuroscience and immunology, but that was fun too. I had the opportunity to serve in this capacity for three different presidents, and I had a wonderful time identifying areas of opportunity that we were not investing in as much as we might and pulling together the leaders and the resources to make that happen.

I was an atheist when I was a graduate student studying physical chemistry. And then I went to medical school and sat at the bedside of a patient of mine, who I confess Id gotten fairly attached to because she reminded me of my grandmother. She shared her faith with me in a very personal, compelling way, and I listened awkwardly. And then she turned to me, and she asked me this question: What do you believe, Doctor?

Four words. What do you believe? I realized Id just been asked the most important question that anybody ever has to consider, and Id spent almost no time trying to understand how people arrive at an answer. I basically said, I dont know.

She gave me this funny look, like, What? You dont know? You havent thought about this? That experience started me on a two-year journey of trying to understand how believers have come to that conclusion.

I read the books of C. S. Lewis, which were an enormous help to me since he was a fellow traveler who had gone through some of the same arguments and ultimately came around to being convinced that the rational choice is to believe in God. Eventually that also became my choice, but only after I realized that approaching God required some way that my sinfulness, my imperfections, could be overlooked, and the person of Jesus Christ emerged as a solution to my problem.

I had always thought Christ was just a myth. I didnt realize that the historical evidence for Christ was so compelling. And so, on a fall afternoon in the Cascade Mountains, I fell on my knees, and I gave my life to Jesus Christ at age 27.

I had by that time also learned that there are pointers to God in science, in nature, that are pretty hard to ignore. For instance, the unreasonable effectiveness of mathematics.

Why is it that mathematics works to describe the behavior of matter and energy? Theres no reason that it should. Why are Maxwells equations so beautiful?

Theres a mind behind this. Theres also the Big Bang. We dont know how to explain how nature just came out of nowhere. Nature isnt supposed to know how to do that. That seems to require a supernatural influence.

And then theres the precise tuning of physical constants in the universe. Those constants determine gravity and nuclear forces. You dont know from first principles what the value of those constants should be. You must measure them. If they were off by just a tiny bit, none of this would work. We might have particles flying around, but there wouldnt ever be any coalescence into anything interesting. The fine tuning of these constants that make it possible for us to be here is breathtaking. And yet, how do you explain that? You either have to say theres a multitude of other universes out there that have different values of this, and were just in the lucky one, or you have to say somebodys behind thissome person, some mind. And I think thats the more compelling of the options. So, faith and reason in this case come together.

Im afraid I am deeply troubled when I look at the current state of whats supposed to be the most technologically advanced, committed-to-progress, caring nation in the world. How have we slipped into a state where divisiveness seeps into almost every topic? Were polarized, were focused on grievances, and were often looking for reasons to be fearful or angry. It has created in our country a deeply unfortunate circumstance that is getting in the way of what all of us want to do, which is to flourish with all the blessings we have around us. So, whats happened to us as a society?

Theres a group called More in Common, which studies societal structures. They have done very careful surveys of Americans, and they conclude that there are people out there on what is called the wings on the right and the left. Those people get a lot of the attention, but most Americans are not there. Were in the exhausted majority.

And we are exhausted with all the animosity, all the vitriol, all the noise, and all the things coming at us every minute, whether from social media or cable news. Its hard not to feel embattled and want to check out, but we cant do that. We have to figure out how to be part of the solution. If we buy into the messages that were hearing, then we assume that we have to take sides, and that somebody on the other side is not just misguided, theyre actually dangerous and might even be evil. The consequence of this is not just unfortunate disagreements or fraying relationships; its life and death, and that was never clearer than with the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

More than one million Americans died from COVID-19, most of them before the vaccine was available. Vaccines were developedand I was right in the middle of this in 2020in 11 months. The vaccine was 95 percent effective against the original Wuhan virus, which I think will stand as one of sciences greatest achievements of all time. The trials we did on this vaccine involved 30,000 volunteers and revealed that it was 92 to 95 percent effective in preventing serious disease, and serious side effects were very rare.

Over three million lives were saved by the vaccines in the United States. Internationally, somewhere between 14 and 20 million people are alive today because of those vaccines. Those are the facts without any political spin; but 50 million Americans said, No, thank you, and 230,000 of them died unnecessarily because of distrust fueled by misinformation and disinformation, especially on social media. And politicsIm sorry to sayplayed into that in ways that made things worse. Our culture wars, in this case, killed a lot of people. Somehow, weve lost sight of how to tell the difference between an opinion and a fact, and we dont know who to trust.

I would argue that there are traditional anchors in our society, and they seem to have been lost. Lets consider four of them.

First, truth. Do you believe in objective truth? I sure hope so, but there are 3,000 people who belong to the Flat Earth Society, and apparently, theyre not swayed by objective truth. Thats just a silly example of what is an increasingly widespread ability for people to say, Well, that might be true for you, but its not true for me. Thats fine if youre talking about an opinion about a movie, but not if its about whether the earth goes around the sun or the other way around. In cases like that, your opinion doesnt matter.

Think about truth in this regard: There are things that are objective, necessary truths. They are firmly established facts, like the earth going around the sun. They were discovered through a rigorous set of empirical evidence. If youre going to encounter one of those and decide you dont agree with it, you better have a really good reason.

And then theres a zone of uncertainty, which is a great place for science to work and try to sort things out. And then theres opinion. All too often we get in one of these discussions, and we forget which zone were in. Recognizing these zones is really important if were going to be able to bring ourselves back on track and put value on objective truth.

One of the ways we get things into the zone of firmly established facts is science. Thats what Ive given much of my life to. Researchers spend every day trying to uncover things scientifically, basically glimpsing Gods mind and getting a sense of how nature is put together. Yes, science makes mistakes. But very importantly, science is ultimately self-correcting, because any conclusion that turns out not to be reliable will be discovered.

But science is falling into the same distrustful space as many other sources of information. This distrust in science has also spilled out in ways that Im really troubled about, which is resulting in undercutting the support of science, including in medical research. Over the past year, science has been under siege in many American universities through serious cuts in staff, budgets, and personneldespite the American success story for medical research, which has been the envy of the world for decades. There could be real trouble if we dont help everyday Americans who arent working in medical research and dont live in a university town understand why this is something they might want to care about.

Whats another source that we might have lost an anchor to? Our faith. Faith has a remarkable role to play here in terms of answering questions that science cant help with. Faith and reason go hand in hand to help us find answers. Faith should also be an anchor in a storm like this one. We have guidance from the words of Jesus and the Old and New Testaments about how we should handle things when they arent going well. Psalm 46 states that God is my refuge and strength, and an ever-present help in trouble.

Our country is in trouble, and faith should be helping us here. Christians should be in the best position to advocate for love, grace, and truth and against divisiveness, animosity, vitriol, and grievances. Thats not really what were seeing in a lot of American Christianity right now. Im an evangelical Christian. Sometimes my heart breaks to see the messages that are being attached to people that I share faith with. The Christian calling says to love your neighbor as yourself,

love your enemies (which must have been the most radical thing when Jesus spoke that in the Sermon on the Mount), pray for those who persecute you,

and depend on truth, which will set you free.

Those are all very clear callings. How are we doing?

Theres a warning too. In Proverbs 6 there are seven things that are detestable to the Lord: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil, a false witness who pours out lies, and a person who stirs up conflict in the community.

It is a sobering list, and yet I think its not just the secular community doing some of these things. The faith community in some instances has fallen into this out of fear, anger, or something thats causing people to lose their connection to what Jesus calls us to.

I read the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 57 every week, and I would recommend that you all do that if youre looking for the most cogent guidance as to who we are supposed to be, especially at a time of trial. You wont find a better source.

And then theres trust, and trust is steadily eroding in our country in virtually every way.

Some of that is justified by the behavior of institutions. Some of it, though, is just manufactured or caused by overall cynicism. If we dont have institutions that we can trust, then we have anarchy. Yet our temptation seems to be, with any institution, to begin to take it down.

How do you decide whether to trust a source or an institution thats giving you information? Think about it. I would bet you have certain criteria. Most of us have four of these. First, is it a source that has integrity? Are they honest? Second, are they competent? Do they know what theyre talking about? Third, are they humble? Are they willing to say Im an expert on this, but not on that? Fourth, does this source align with my values? All four criteria used to be mostly equal contributors, but now value alignment has become the dominant force. People think, If that institution or that individual is in my bubble, my tribe, then Im going to accept what they say. Im not even going to be that skeptical. Whereas if theyre in that other tribe, I dont care what they say. Its probably wrong. Dont tell me youre not doing that, because I know Im doing it too. And that means were losing the more reliable areas: integrity, competence, and humility.

How do we find our way back from this quandary? I dont think our politicians can be relied on to do it, although some of them are trying. Its up to us, we the people. So, very quickly, reanchor your worldview to those biblical principles. If youve been seduced by political versions of these principles, reconsider whether that worldview needs a bit of work. Do everything you can with your intellectual radar to distinguish facts from fakesand theres a lot of fakesand dont be afraid to reach out to people who disagree with you. In fact, we need to do a lot more of that: more listening and less shouting. Then seek out community opportunities for dialogue, and demand character, vision, and positive action from our national leaders.

Finally, how then does one get wisdom? Well, Im on this road too, so its rather bold of me to imagine that I could tell you how to find your way up the road. Half the time I think Im in a ditch or up against the guard rails. Heres where you can really find it: James 1:5. If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all men generously and without reproach, and it will be given him.

How do you know true wisdom when you see it? Its pure, peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, and without hypocrisy.

My prayer for myself and for all of you is that we remember that, and we search by the means weve been given to find that kind of wisdom and then apply it to make our world better, because the world needs us more than ever right now.

here

Born in Nepals fertile Terai region, Sabina Magar (NDFS 26) was eight when her family moved to the United States, and yet her connection to her native country has never faded. She still remembers coming home from school and enjoying her fathers cookinga bowl of white rice drenched in rich Nepali yogurt and mixed with crushed pepper, which he lovingly prepared for her. On other days, she would walk to the plantation where her mother worked and ask for five rupees to buy chatpate, her favorite snack, at the corner store. Basking in the heat of the Nepali sun, she would savor the mix of puffed rice, vegetables, and fiery spices. It was the best thing in the world, she remembers fondly. I always looked forward to it. Those early experiences with food in her homeland profoundly influenced Magar, who has since dedicated herself to studying nutrition, with the goal of one day returning to Nepal to help combat childhood malnutrition.

Though her experiences in Nepal had planted the seed, it wasnt until Magar took her first nutrition class at BYU that her ambitions truly began to take root. Deeply empathetic and driven by a desire to serve, she found herself unable to ignore the human stories behind the statistics she was learning. She had not known that 36 percent of children in Nepal suffer from stunting due to chronic malnutrition.

We learned all about the different health problems that arise when people suffer from vitamin and other nutritional deficiencies, Magar shares. My teacher showed pictures of kids who were malnourished, and my heart broke. I remember thinking, So much of this is preventable. Why isnt it being prevented? Whats going on? The experience marked a turning point for Magar. She decided to major in dietetics and minor in international development, and she immediately began seeking out opportunities to gain hands-on experience and serveeven while balancing a full college course load.

Magars desire to begin making a difference as early as possible gave her the confidence to attend an event for first-generation students and actively network with her fellow attendees. Those efforts ultimately connected her with public health professor Dr. Jim Johnston, who offered her a position as a research assistant in his lab. Overjoyed, Magar eagerly accepted the opportunity, compelled to contribute in part by the fact that the Johnston Lab was working on projects directly connected to her home country. In Nepal, brick workers are exposed to heavy pollution throughout the day, and they often carry that pollution back into their homes at night, which contributes to a range of respiratory issues, Magar explains. To combat this, the team is working to identify low-cost, effective ways to reduce indoor air pollution in the workers households. I was able to translate health records into Nepali so that when the team goes back to Nepal, the workers can understand their own health data. The experience deepened her appreciation for the role language plays in public health research and reinforced her desire to make scientific information accessible to the communities it is meant to serve.

To replicate the conditions of brick homes in Nepal, the Johnston Lab has constructed two full-scale model houses and is now working to simulate an authentically polluted indoor environment in each. They plan to begin testing their pollutant-reduction technologies soon. For Magar, the experience has been incredibly heartwarming. I just feel so grateful for how welcoming the lab has been and for the fact that this work is for my country. In the lab, we pray for the people in Nepal, for guidance, and for ideas, she says. Its so amazing when an outside culture is really invested in your culturewhen they want to get to know you, make you feel loved, and genuinely try to make your life better. Im so grateful that the Johnston Lab is willing to do this for my people.

As Magar approaches the end of her BYU education, she eagerly looks toward the future. She plans to take the exam to become a Dietetic Technician, Registered (DTR), a credential that will allow her to work closely with registered dietitians in clinical settings. The opportunity appeals to Magar both because she will be able to gain practical experience in nutrition care while contributing directly to patient support under professional supervision and also because she will be able to work as a DTR at an Ohio-based hospital that serves the Nepali community. From there, Magar hopes to continue her training through a masters program in dietetics. God has given me such incredible opportunities. I have talents and the ability to work hard, and I want to use these things to serve others, Magar says with a smile. When I have moments of doubt, I remind myself that having the desire to help matters. Ive come to feel so close to God because Im beginning to understand, even just a little, how deeply He cares for His children.

That sense of divine care has shaped Magar, inspiring her to dedicate her abilities to the service of others. While her childhood memories of flavorful Nepali meals remain meaningful to her, her passion for nutrition truly grew from a desire to help her own family and other Nepali communities facing diseases such as cancer, hypertension, and diabetes. What began as a teenagers determination to understand healthy eating for the sake of those closest to her has since expanded into a broader commitment to improving lives through nutrition.

Having trouble remembering someones name or where you put your keys? Youre not alone. Check out these helpful tips from neuroscience professor Jeff Edwards to improve your memory and cognitive capacity.

Whether youre walking, talking, or just breathing, you can thank the organ between your ears. The brain is the control center for your body, and it oversees everything you do. Its responsibilities include interpreting sensory information; regulating autonomic functions like breath intake and heart rate; controlling movement, emotion, vision, and behavior; enabling conscious thought; and storing memories.

Not only is the brain one of the hardest working organs in your body, its also one of the most adaptable, changing based on your experiences through use-dependent plasticity. When we experience things in life, our brain can rewire itself, says Edwards. It can alter itself in different ways in order to adapt to what were experiencing.

Information about everything you see, hear, smell, touch, or taste is processed in your cortex and then integrated together into one full, seamless picture before being sent to the hippocampus, the memory and learning center of the brain. In the hippocampus, synaptic connections associated with a memory are strengtheneda process called long-term potentiation (LTP). If the information is deemed important and LTP is strong enough, the memories formed are filed into the appropriate parts of the cerebral cortex for permanent storage. Alternatively, if the information is deemed unimportant then these synapses are eventually weakened and the information is forgotten.

Physical health directly relates to brain health, notes Edwards. Taking time throughout the week to exercise can make a big difference for your mental clarity and mood. Edwardss research clearly indicates that cardiovascular exercise enhances LTP levels in the hippocampus and offsets many of the negative cognitive impacts of stress. So the next time you have a difficult day, try going for a walk, a bike ride, or a run. Work up a sweat to help your brain reset. Your brain will thank you later.

In the hippocampus, short-term memories are turned into long-term memories during rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, the phase of sleep in which the majority of your dreams occur. So, if youre lacking sleep or you dont get enough REM sleep, it will disrupt memory consolidation, Edwards explains. Prioritize your shut-eye by creating a wind-down routine, limiting your phone use before bed, and making sure your sleep environment is quiet and comfortable. These simple strategies will lower your cortisol levels and trigger melatonin productiona hormone that helps regulate your internal clock and signals to your body that its time to sleep.

Nutrition is key to a healthy brain. What you choose to consume can either positively or negatively impact your cognition. If youre chronically eating poorly, your brain might not be able to get the resources that it needs, says Edwards. And that will cause neurons to start to fatigue, retire, and die, resulting in cognitive decline. To care for your brain, eat a balanced diet full of lean proteins, unsaturated fats, and complex carbohydrates. Foods that are full of refined carbs like pancakes, doughnuts, and candy can cause brain fog. Choose fresh fruits and vegetables over processed food options whenever possible.

Your brain is a complex organ but maintaining it can be simple. Exercising, sleeping well, and eating healthy can make a big difference. If youre doing these things, youre going to maintain better bioenergetics in your brain, adds Edwards. Start today to prioritize your brain health; its a no-brainer.

Paxton Webster (NDFS 27) watched proudly as the small pan of quinoa he was supervising began to pop loudly, the miniature grains transforming into expansive, golden kernels. The experience, though familiar to him, never failed to engender a sense of immense fulfillment, as he knew he was watching a centuries-old Andean staple be converted into something both practical and empowering for communities in Bolivia. Quinoa is a tiny, nutrient-dense seed that is often referred to as a super grain because it is packed with protein, fiber, and essential vitamins. Today, it is valued not just as a trending health food but as a practical, income-generating ingredient for Bolivian communitiesa potential that Webster explored through his student-led project at BYU.

Webster was first introduced to the potential of quinoa by Dr. Laura Jefferies, a food science professor at BYU who runs a lab dedicated to developing quinoa-based products in collaboration with the Global Engineering Outreach group. He immediately felt drawn to the project. Its a really interdisciplinary effort, Webster explains, noting how the mix of perspectives has proved especially exciting. Ive had the opportunity to work with engineers, sociologists, and business students, he shares. Webster brings his own strengths to the project through his lifelong love of cooking and his experience running a small catering business.

Once Webster officially joined the project, Jefferies encouraged him to explore new ways quinoa could benefit underserved communities in South America. Deciding to take an inventive yet practical approach, Webster began developing a cookbook filled with healthy and delicious quinoa-based recipes. He collaborated with native Spanish speakers to ensure the final work was accurate and accessible. The completed cookbook, written entirely in Spanish, includes clear measurements, step-by-step instructions, and photographs to make each recipe easy to follow.

Not only did the cookbook offer a practical guide to preparing quinoa, it also addressed a real need in Bolivian communities. By outlining experimental ways to use quinoa in daily cooking, the cookbook could potentially create opportunities for families to generate income. The people of Bolivia are incredible, Webster says. They make amazing use of quinoa, but we wanted to introduce new applicationsthings like popped quinoa or quinoa flour in different recipes. The idea was to create options people could make at home or sell on the streets, something that could help support their livelihoods.

Websters dedication culminated in a cookbook featuring 26 recipes, including quinoa fried breads, quinoa cinnamon rolls, quinoa fudge, and other baked goods. All the recipes were designed to be accessible, using locally available ingredients and equipment. About 150 copies of the cookbook have been distributed for free to families and community members in Bolivia, where it has been used in cooking classes and hands-on demonstrations. Webster himself has visited Bolivia three times over the course of the projects development. The first trip was mostly a recon mission, Webster says, where we shared the first draft of the cookbook. The second time, we went with the fully published version to hand out. On the third trip, we conducted a sensory panel to evaluate some of the recipes we had developed using popped quinoa. The sensory panel offered valuable feedback, as the Bolivian participants confirmed Websters hypothesis that popped quinoa might be better used as an ingredient in recipes rather than a standalone snack.

Each of Websters visits to Bolivia added a new layer of understanding, helping the team refine the cookbook and identify the most practical ways quinoa could be used. Right now, our focus is on finding even more innovative ways to use quinoa, Jefferies explains. None of what weve developed so far is intended for commercialization, because at its core, this work is really about global health. Its about accessibility, usability, and ultimately improving quality of life, rather than creating products for profit. The team remains dedicated to creating quinoa products and is now using research grants to focus on developing products like quinoa granola bars, which could eventually be produced at larger scales.

For Webster, the opportunity to work with quinoa wasnt just about food science or recipe development. It was also a chance to witness the hand of God guiding the project directly. The team was guided to community members who were eager to participate, and collaborators like Webster were led to the project right when they were needed. Jefferies echoes this sentiment: The students who have been involved in this project were meant to be part of it. Theyre incredibly dedicated, capable, and driven. And they all found their way to me, she explains, sometimes just by knocking on my door or hearing through the grapevine that I had research going on, which resulted in this project coming together in a really meaningful way.

As Webster reflects on the impact of the project and the connections he has made with local communities, he reports feeling an immense sense of gratitude. Being a part of this project has been a huge blessing in my life, Webster says. Ive really loved getting the chance to go out and meet people. Traveling to the middle of La Paz, Bolivia, and working in a quinoa field, you realize just how good all people are. We are all Gods children, and we have so much in common. The opportunity to engage with Bolivian communities face-to-face has reinforced Websters conviction to become a physician. He now prepares for the MCAT with confidence, inspired by his experiences serving Bolivian communities and strengthened by the hands-on understanding of nutrition and community health he gained over the course of the project.

In these pages, you will meet students and faculty discovering their divine potential through curiosity, perseverance, and a willingness to share their light. Their work spans wildlife management and conservation, disaster mitigation, memory, nutrition, coral reef preservation, HIV research, cellular communication, and athletic achievement. Though these pursuits are diverse, they share a common purpose: using knowledge and discovery to bless others.

You will also read reflections on the relationship between study and faith, including insights from our students and the BYU forum address by Dr.Francis S. Collins. These messages remind us that knowledge and discipleship belong together. As we seek truth, develop our gifts, and use what we learn to bless others, we more fully become who God intends us to be.

These stories demonstrate how scientific research can help us protect communities, restore ecosystems, improve health, strengthen families, and expand hope. Through research, service, teaching, and everyday acts of compassion, our students are learning to use their education for purposes greater than themselves.

I am grateful for the students, faculty, staff, alumni, and friends in this community. Together, we carry forward a tradition of learning and service that prepares us to bring light into the worldand to recognize and be strengthened by the light we receive from one another.

Respectfully yours,

Laura C. Bridgewater