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…
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…
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,…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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,…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
This week neuro-linguist Laura Gwilliams breaks down how sound becomes information in the human brain, specifically focusing on how speech is transformed into meaning. Welcome back to "From Our Neurons to Yours," a podcast where we criss-cross scientific disciplines to take you to the cutting edge of brain science.…
A first-of-its-kind study by Stanford Medicine researchers lets patients practice letting go of treasured objects in simulations of their own homes. - By Nina Bai Many people who dream of an organized, uncluttered home à la Marie Kondo find it hard to decide what to keep and what to let…
Bård Harstad tells his students that every environmental problem is, at its core, an inefficiency problem. “This inefficiency means that, overall, you’re losing something,” he explains. “It means that there is another way to make decisions so that we could potentially all be better off.” Harstad, a professor of political…
Stanford University reported returns on its investment portfolio as of June 30, 2023, and the value of its endowment as of the close of its fiscal year, August 31, 2023. Stanford University today announced a 4.4% investment return in its Merged Pool, net of all external and internal costs and…
There are unintended consequences of antitrust regulation, Stanford scholar’s research reveals With the Google antitrust trial well underway, and an Amazon suit soon to follow, Riitta Katila, a professor of management science and engineering, discusses the impacts of anti-competition regulation on innovation. “Big tech platforms often get a bad…
Until now, identifying charcoal camps believed to be using forced labor has been reliant on tips, many of which are anonymous. With an overwhelming number of tips to process simultaneously, prioritizing which leads to follow becomes a challenge for the authorities. “Tracking down the exact location of these sites can…
Cyprus CEO Summary: In the late 1940s, a pivotal debate unfolded between Vannevar Bush and Harley Kilgore regarding science funding and education in America. Bush championed elite university labs and commercializing discoveries, while Kilgore advocated for broader scientific literacy and public officials setting research priorities. The National Science Foundation was…
Polarization has become the defining feature of the U.S. political landscape, and a common refrain is that social media is to blame. Online echo chambers and filter bubbles spread misinformation, fuel extremism, and stoke antipathy toward those with different beliefs — so the thinking goes. Facebook, in particular, has come…
Scientists discover a biomarker in stroke survivors, suggesting that chemical changes after stroke can lead to depression. The findings may pave the way toward treatment. - By Sarah C.P. Williams “We can now look at a stroke survivor’s blood and predict their mood,” Marion Buckwalter said. Earlier this year,…
Bad science is a big problem for society, says guest Jonathan Osborne, an expert in science education, but we don’t have to surrender to it. Beating bad science requires young people to learn three skills, Osborne says. First is an ability to size up conflicts of interest. Second, to evaluate…
The California Public Utilities Commission recently approved petitions from two taxi companies, Waymo and Cruise, to operate paid robo-taxi services around the clock in San Francisco. The first-of-its-kind move has been widely seen as a major step forward for fully autonomous vehicles and a springboard for similar driverless car rollouts…
For some economists, the answer to world peace is simple: Promote more trade. In the 18th century, French philosopher Charles Montesquieu described commerce as “a cure for the most destructive prejudices.” Buyers and sellers may both profit, the argument goes, but in order to do so, each party must trust…
To improve EV batteries, study them on the road. New research shows adding real-world driving data to battery management software and computer models of battery pack performance can lead to longer-lasting, more reliable batteries. By Mark Shwartz Driving styles, temperature, and charging patterns can affect battery health. (Image credit: Getty…
A team of Stanford Medicine researchers have shown in male mice that a particular neuronal circuit is responsible for sexual arousal and for the actions and pleasure that ensue, opening avenues for treatment in men. The brain’s hardwired housing for male mammalian sex drive, behavior and reward looks to be…
As anyone with chronic disease knows, access to health care doesn’t always equate with equitable health care outcomes, says guest Alyce Adams, an expert in innovations in health policy. Too often, care delivery breaks down along racial and socioeconomic lines. Our focus should be on better outcomes for all people,…
Before he became an expert on corporate leadership, Charles O’Reilly spent five years in the U.S. Army. There he witnessed the stark divide between good and bad leaders and realized how much influence they had on the people who worked for them. Now a professor of organizational behavior at Stanford…
In a new paper, Stanford University authors, including Stanford Law Associate Professor Julian Nyarko, illuminate how algorithmic decisions based on ‘fairness’ don’t always lead to equitable or desirable outcomes. Algorithms underpin large and small decisions on a massive scale every day: who gets screened for diseases like diabetes, who receives…
How to move communities away from flooding risks with minimal harm As sea levels rise and flooding becomes more frequent, many countries are considering a controversial strategy: relocation of communities. A Stanford analysis of planned relocations around the world reveals a blueprint for positive outcomes. By Rob Jordan Stanford Woods…
Americans are all in for labor these days. According to an August 2022 Gallup poll, 71 percent of Americans approve of labor unions, up from 64 percent prior to the pandemic and the highest Gallup has recorded since 1965. SLS Professor Emeritus William B. Gould With Hollywood writers and actors…