So let's say you want to make a piece of electronics that works just like the brain. Where would you start? That's the question neuroscientist Bill …
Month: June 2015
Stanford Medicine magazine earns national awards
Please join me in a round of applause for Stanford Medicine magazine for recently winning six awards in a national competition, including top prize in …
“Supplying each cell with a scuba tank”: New advances in tissue engineering
Researchers in the U.K. have found a way to make growing synthetic tissue more sustainable. At present, the size of engineered tissues is limited because …
Kennewick Man’s origins revealed by genetic study
One day in 1996, on the banks of the Columbia River near Kennewick, Washington, two men found a human skull about ten feet from shore. …
One mutation, two people and two (or more) outcomes: What gives?
Welcome to Biomed Bites, a weekly feature that introduces readers to some of Stanford's most innovative researchers. Tweak a piano string and you've created a …
The battle against big tobacco hits the classroom
In Malawi, children as young as five years old work in tobacco fields. Here, in the Silicon Valley, five-year-olds compete to attend top preschools. Stanford communications …
Stanford-India Biodesign fellows develop prototype device to improve success of pacemaker implants
This post is part of the Biodesign’s Jugaad series following a group of Stanford Biodesign fellows from India. (Jugaad is a Hindi word that means …
“We are a team”: Advice for new residents from chief residents, in their own words
There are many things chief residents want new residents to know right out the gate, but much of that goes unsaid. So the blog Academic …
Stanford initiative aims to simultaneously improve education and maternal-child health in South Africa
What if we could "leapfrog" over the education and technology gap in low-resource countries, while at the same time improving maternal and early childhood health …
Study shows toothed whales have persisted millions of years without two common antiviral proteins
Our ability to fend off the flu, HIV and other viruses is enhanced when proteins are produced by two "immune genes," called MX1 and MX2. Other …
Nature issues reminder that “equality in science is a battle still far from won”
In light of recent widely covered events (and entertaining reactions on Twitter), Nature published an editorial yesterday titled, simply, "Sexism has no place in science." It was published …
Scientific discovery could lead to treatments for chronic pancreatitis
Pancreatitis is one of the most common gastrointestinal hospital admissions-related illness. Patients with the acute form of the disease show up at hospitals doubled over …
Living with the uncertainty of NF
We’ve partnered with Inspire, a company that builds and manages online support communities for patients and caregivers, to launch a patient-focused series here on Scope. …
Stanford Medicine grads urged to break out of comfort zone, use science to improve human health
On Saturday, 195 graduates of the School of Medicine sat under a large white tent on the Alumni Green pondering the next chapter in their …
Better tumor-imaging contrast agent: the surgical equivalent of “cut along dotted line”?
It would be tough for most people to take a snubbed-nose scissors to an 8-1/2" x 11" sheet of blank paper and carve out a …
To live longer, men need to embrace their femininity, new research suggests
Scores of scholars have examined a fundamental truth of our time: Women live longer than men. But why? After poring over data spanning centuries and …