In recent years, the intense pressure professional athletes endure has come under scrutiny, highlighted by incidents like gymnast Simone Biles withdrawing from the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and tennis player Naomi Osaka stepping back from the French Open, both citing mental health reasons. As Biles told reporters at the time, “Whenever you get in a high-stress situation, you kind of freak out,” adding: “It just sucks when you’re fighting with your…
What if instead of trying to win an argument, you aimed to truly understand your opponent? Imagine a world where disagreements were seen as opportunities to expand your own perspective and build empathy – a pathway to cultivating compassion, grace, and humility. This radical approach to conflict was at the heart of PHIL 3: Democracy and Disagreement, a spring quarter course taught by Debra Satz, the Vernon R. and Lysbeth…
Rising water prices are forcing many households in the United States to choose between rationing water or risking shutoff by leaving bills unpaid. A new study in Environmental Research Letters shows government agencies and water utilities may be underestimating the true number of households at risk of losing affordable access to basic water service – and offers a solution. “Water affordability is a growing problem and we need new tools…
Debates can play an important role in democratic elections. They educate voters and give politicians a chance to set themselves apart from their opponents. Yet it’s not always easy to get candidates to agree to face off with each other. That poses a problem in countries like Sierra Leone, where voters do not have many sources of election information. In 2012, an NGO in the small West African nation ran…
How can we create things in the world without causing harm, and instead, create with healing in mind? This question is at the heart of Assembling Tomorrow (Penguin Random House, 2024), the new book by Carissa Carter and Scott Doorley, directors at Stanford University’s d.school. With the rapid growth of AI and other emerging technologies, how we create and what we create profoundly influence our lives. The challenge is to…
A bit of retail therapy can feel like harmless fun. Yet getting a great deal on a new shirt or pair of shoes may come with a hidden price tag: greenhouse gas emissions, resource depletion, and the mistreatment of workers and animals. The average cotton T-shirt, for example, requires about 700 gallons of water to make. A fast-fashion polyester top is made from petroleum, sheds microfibers, and may spend decades…
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Throughout her life, philanthropist and businesswoman Melinda French Gates has navigated difficult transitions, including career changes, having children, and losing a close friend. In each case, she felt terrified that life as she knew it would end." hroughoutThroughout her life, philanthropist and businesswoman Melinda French Gates has navigated difficult transitions, including career changes, having children, and losing a close friend. In each case, she felt terrified that life as she…
If Lerone A. Martin, the faculty director for Stanford’s Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute, harbored any doubts about teaching his popular undergraduate course via the Internet to high schoolers in Los Angeles, they vanished when the results of a student survey arrived midway through the semester. When asked about the class, Between Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr.: Race, Religion, and the Politics of Freedom, three…
The huge, long-lasting wildfires that have become increasingly common in recent years can cause changes in soil chemistry that affect water contamination, air quality, and plant growth. But these changes are poorly monitored and rarely factor into post-fire recovery efforts or risk assessments, according to a review study published May 14 in Nature Reviews Earth & Environment. The study, led by Stanford University and Colorado State University scientists, found that…
James Doty, MD, discusses how we can create new neural pathways in our brain to help us advance toward a goal. James Doty starts his new book, Mind Magic: The Neuroscience of Manifestation and How It Changes Everything (Avery, 2024), with an abrupt and clear statement to readers: The universe doesn’t care about you. It’s unexpected coming from a world-renowned neurosurgeon and founding director of Stanford’s Center for Compassion and…
One way to find out how someone is feeling is to ask them. “In the past two weeks, how often have you felt little interest or pleasure in doing things?” begins a standard questionnaire for depression. “How often have you felt afraid, as if something awful might happen?” inquires one questionnaire for anxiety. “Several days? Nearly every day?” Self-reporting is how most psychiatric disorders are diagnosed and monitored today, but…
A significant majority of large investors polled in a new survey say they consider environmental, social, and governance (ESG) concerns when determining which firms to invest in, but basic governance factors far outweigh environmental and social concerns in their calculus. This is according to the 2024 Institutional Investor Survey on Sustainability, published through a partnership of the Hoover Institution Working Group on Corporate Governance, Stanford’s Arthur and Toni Rembe Rock…
Crammed elbow to elbow around a table in a tiny basement-level Clark Center conference room, a multidisciplinary cross-section of scientists, physicians, engineers and students convened to scarf sandwiches and compare notes. They were there that fateful Friday in 2019 because Karl Deisseroth, MD, PhD — one of Stanford Medicine’s most forward-thinking researcher-clinicians — had invited them. And lunch was on him. “We needed a lot of sandwiches in that jam-packed…
Until recently, unless you worked on a trading floor, making your own stock deals wasn’t easy. “When I started 20 years ago, I used a dial-up connection and paid $17 per trade, which meant I thought long and hard before each one,” recalls Ed deHaan, a professor of accounting at Stanford Graduate School of Business. “Today, you can trade for free with the swipe of a finger before you’re even…
Kathy Ho tries to see every new teen on her list within 72 hours of their arrival. For some, it’s too soon, or they’re too sick. But for others, she is a beacon of normalcy. Ho teaches high school inside Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford (LPCH). “Sometimes I don’t like saying that I’m a teacher,” says Ho, MA ’94. “People get in their minds an idea of what teachers do,…
Riya Narayan, ’26, strolled gingerly in a full-length design by Dominique Schleider, ’26, that resembled a chainmail bell. Kirsten Lees, ’27, modeled a bodysuit and shawl crafted entirely of belts. Celeste Amadon, ’26, wore a black leotard covered in spiraling metal coils, with a long, lacy veil trailing behind her. “I think of the look as ‘bride meets funeral meets cyborg space creature,’ ” Amadon said after the show. The three…
A new artificial intelligence model helps physicians and nurses work together at Stanford Hospital to boost patient care. - By Hanae Armitage An artificial intelligence model in use at Stanford Hospital helps physicians and nurses know when a patient may be in decline, so they can act quickly to keep them out of the intensive care unit. vachcameraman - stock.adobe.com With large language models that take notes during patient visits and algorithms…
The Stanford Forum on the Science of Energy Transition brought together scientific experts, technology innovators, and industry leaders to explore practical pathways to a decarbonized future. How do we transition to clean energy with enough speed and scale to prevent the most extreme impacts of climate change? This question loomed large for many of the speakers and participants at the Stanford Forum on the Science of Energy Transition, held on…
The Colorado River, “the lifeblood of the West,” is in trouble. Decades of overuse and drought have sharply reduced its water supply, threatening an ecosystem that supports 40 million people and 5.5 million acres of farmland in nearby states and parts of northern Mexico. Steep cutbacks in water use are critical. But the seven states that rely on the Colorado River can’t agree on how much less each of them…
A few years ago, researchers attached recording devices to a few hundred Americans and sampled their conversations over several days. They found that these volunteers spent, on average, 52 minutes per day having conversations about people who were not there. In other words, gossiping. Gossip is a ubiquitous feature of human communication, explains Michele Gelfand, a professor of organizational behavior at Stanford Graduate School of Business. Everyone seems to do…
Rational, analytical thinking is often seen as the gold standard when it comes to decision-making. Yet according to Professor Baba Shiv, cool, level-headed intellect isn’t the only game in town. “Is a good decision based on reason?” he asks. “Or is it based on emotion?” Shiv is the Sanwa Bank, Limited, Professor of Marketing at Stanford Graduate School of Business. Throughout his career, he’s researched how brain structures related to…
Stanford Medicine integrates AI-powered listening technology that takes notes for health care providers, allowing them to spend more time with patients and less time on administrative tasks. - By Hanae Armitage Technology that listens to conversations and takes notes allows allows health care providers to focus on the patient rather than on documentation. Clinicians at Stanford Health Care will soon have access to an AI-powered app that can securely listen…
Awash in a tsunami of often-conflicting information, people tend to look to experts for guidance on what to believe and what to do. If an expert comes across as highly confident and their opinion dovetails with one’s political views or confirms what one’s social circle tends to believe, then the opinion usually resonates as truthful and valuable. But how do we really know if we are making fully informed decisions…
California’s “Three Strikes and You’re Out” law, which passed in 1994, was one of the tough-on-crime measures that swept the country in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Later, as the prisons were overflowing, the stories started to come out: A man sent to prison for life for stealing a pair of shoes. Another sentenced to life for breaking into a soup kitchen. Michael Romano, JD ’03, is the founder…
As artificial intelligence has begun to generate text and images over the last few years, it has sparked a new round of questions about how handing over human decisions and activities to AI will affect society. Will the AI sources we’ve launched prove to be friendly helpmates or the heartless despots seen in dystopian films and fictions? Matthew Jackson. Photo by Do Pham/Stanford University. A team anchored by Matthew Jackson,…
Children’s drawing and drawing recognition abilities change throughout childhood By Madeline Reinsel A child using a kiosk at the Children’s Discovery Museum of San Jose. Drawings from the kiosk were collected and analyzed using AI to help the researchers better understand how children perceive the world, and how they communicate those perceptions through drawing. (Image credit: Nick Gamurot) Children’s ability to draw recognizable objects and to recognize each other’s drawings…
More than 20 million Americans are covered by state and local government pensions. Unlike the 401(k) plans found in the private sector, these “defined benefit” plans promise to pay retirees a set amount of money every month for the rest of their lives. For most public workers, these generous programs are a cornerstone of their financial security; for many, they’re one of the main attractions of government jobs. Yet the…
For big multinationals that love tax havens, the start of 2024 was not cause for celebration. On Jan. 1, the European Union, Japan, Canada, and Australia joined other jurisdictions in requiring their largest companies to pay a tax rate of at least 15 percent on their worldwide profits. The moves are part of an unprecedented push, led by the Organisation for Economic Development and Cooperation, to create a more uniform…
Down a gray and gritty alley in San Francisco’s Chinatown, a Victorian-era investigator waved away the sickly fumes emanating from forbidden opium dens, stopped before an unmarked door and rapped on it with his cane. A fictional sleuth? No, it’s a real-life character in George Fisher’s compelling introduction to his detailed study of our anti-intoxicant laws. Beware Euphoria: The Moral Roots and Racial Myths of America’s War on Drugs, published…
Health After Cancer podcast tackles survivorship, advocacy The Health After Cancer podcast brings together Stanford Medicine physicians, cancer survivors and advocates to discuss issues around cancer survivorship and health after cancer treatment. Author Krista CongerPublished on February 2, 2024February 2, 2024 A young adult grappling with murky memories -- but permanent side-effects -- of cancer treatment as a child. A woman recently declared breast-cancer-free who opens her mailbox…
How California is taking on inequity for Black patients during pregnancy, childbirth Across the United States, Black women are three to four times as likely as their white peers to experience life-threatening pregnancy complications or die giving birth Author Erin DigitalePublished on January 31, 2024January 31, 2024 Across the United States, Black women are three to four times as likely as their white peers to experience life-threatening pregnancy complications…
Ever been in a situation where you just can’t get your message across? New research by Zakary Tormala and Mohamed Hussein suggests that you might want to rethink which pronouns you deploy. Tormala, a professor of marketing at Stanford GSB, and Hussein, a PhD candidate who studies the intersection between consumer behavior and politics, looked at how using “you” versus “we” pronouns affected how people responded to messages in settings…
Imagine Thursday. Does Thursday have a color? What about the sound of rain — does that sound taste like chocolate? Or does the sound of a saxophone feel triangular to you? For about 3% of the population, the sharp lines between our senses blend together. Textures may have tastes, sounds, shapes, numbers may have colors. This sensory crosstalk is called synesthesia, and it's not a disorder, just a different way of…
Americans aren’t good at managing their money — and there are signs that the problem is getting worse. Already saddled with record levels of student debt, young adults today, for example, are even more unlikely to monitor their credit card debt and bank balances. Some people trick themselves into thinking that store refunds or anything less than $5 amount to free money. And too many people pay for online subscriptions…
Science has a replication problem. In recent years, it has come to light that the findings of many studies, particularly those in social psychology, cannot be reproduced by other scientists. When this happens, the data, methods, and interpretation of the study’s results are often called into question, creating a crisis of confidence. “When people don’t trust science, that’s bad for society,” said Jon Krosnick, the Frederic O. Glover Professor of…
Over the past decade, Robert Sapolsky—a Stanford professor of biology, of neurology, and of neurosurgery, as well as a bestselling author of popular science books—has added another line to his CV: witness in murder trials. The hours waiting outside courtrooms are long, the pay beside the point. But the role allows Sapolsky to act in service of a core belief, one rooted in an epiphany he had as a 13-year-old and…
To write your girlfriend a poem, GPT-4, an artificial intelligence system, requires orders of magnitude more energy than your brain does. That’s because AI doesn’t really function like the brain. Rather, it runs like all other computer software by flooding microchips with huge quantities of binary signals, in the form of zeros and ones, and gobbling up electricity along the way. Kwabena Boahen, PhD, a professor of bioengineering and of…
After the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the use of race-based affirmative action in college admissions in June 2023, universities have been grappling with their admissions protocols and law firms and other private sector entities have been facing lawsuits over pipeline and DEI programs. Stanford Law Professor Ralph Richard Banks According to Ralph Richard Banks (BA ’87, MA ’87), the Jackson Eli Reynolds Professor of Law at Stanford Law School…
Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan delivered a sharp warning to the technology industry in a speech at Stanford on Thursday: Antitrust enforcers are watching what you do in the race to profit from artificial intelligence. “Much is uncertain about what the future of this technology will look like,” said Khan. “But the FTC has made clear that there is no exemption from the [antitrust] laws on the books. The…