http://storybank.stanford.edu Stories of discovery and learning at Stanford en-us editor@mysite.com webmaster@mysite.com Story Bank Feed Creator How has technology impacted America's ability to go to war? What is the role of gender in medicine, and what are the costs and challenges of applying new technologies in developing countries? These were some of the questions discussed at the International Initiative's first annual symposium this spring. Convened by Stanford faculty, the symposium offered the opportunity for them to share their work and promote interdisciplinary collaboration on various aspects of the symposium's theme of Technology and Culture. http://storybank.stanford.edu/article.php/contentID_5/tab_videos The human body is accompanied by a mind and many would say a soul, but it is fundamentally a machine. And so, Professor Scott Delp reasoned several years ago, it should be simulated on a computer, yielding new insights that doctors and researchers could use to help the disabled, the elderly and even healthy athletes move better. http://storybank.stanford.edu/article.php/contentID_180/tab_videos There are some 100 billion neurons in the human brain, none of which know how to read, recognize or run-at least, not on their own. But somehow, their collective activity gives rise to all the hallmarks of human intelligence. This phenomenon is the focus of the new Center for the Mind, Brain and Computation. http://storybank.stanford.edu/article.php/contentID_7/tab_videos Afam Onyema, who graduated from Stanford Law School in 2007, spent the better part of his law school career refining a business plan, enlisting support, and raising funds to build a hospital in Nigeria--a longtime dream of his physician father. http://storybank.stanford.edu/article.php/contentID_8/tab_videos Using brain images of people listening to short symphonies by an obscure 18th-century composer, a research team from the Stanford University School of Medicine has gained valuable insight into how the brain sorts out the chaotic world around it. http://storybank.stanford.edu/article.php/contentID_10/tab_videos Asked to sample two identical foods from the fast-food giant McDonald's, children preferred the taste of the version branded with the restaurant's familiar "Golden Arches" to one extracted from unmarked paper packaging, say researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine and Lucile Packard Children's Hospital.  The study shows that even young children are swayed by brand preferences. The results are likely to fuel more debate over a growing movement to restrict marketing to kids under 8 years old. http://storybank.stanford.edu/article.php/contentID_12/tab_videos The molecular imaging field is a relatively new arrival to the biosciences. Initially, Sanjiv "Sam" Gambhir explains, imaging specialists who focused on X-rays and MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) technology did not communicate much with molecular biologists. But in recent years, medicine has focused increasingly on the molecular level as scientists have become interested in the genetic and molecular factors affecting disease. The multidisciplinary science of molecular imaging has since begun to flourish. http://storybank.stanford.edu/article.php/contentID_13/tab_videos When Engineering Dean Jim Plummer was asked recently to predict the hottest new field, the uncharted territory just ahead, he didn't take but a second to reply. "Nano," he said. "It's a sea change." Nanotechnology, by which certain physical and chemical operations enable mastery over unbelievably tiny structures, which in turn can benefit everything from medicine to sportswear, is occupying the time of a growing number of Stanford researchers. http://storybank.stanford.edu/article.php/contentID_16/tab_videos ID (17) not in database.Contact Pipeline Administrator. http://storybank.stanford.edu/article.php/contentID_17/tab_videos ID (25) not in database.Contact Pipeline Administrator. http://storybank.stanford.edu/article.php/contentID_25/tab_videos Paul Wise found inspiration for his life's work in a village in Guatemala. As a college student at Cornell, keen to explore the world, he signed up to spend a summer working as an orderly at a children's hospital outside Guatemala City. When he arrived, he was shocked to find many children suffering and dying from preventable diseases such as dysentery and measles. He made a pledge then to work to improve the healthcare of the world's most vulnerable children. http://storybank.stanford.edu/article.php/contentID_29/tab_videos Margaret Brandeau flew to St. Petersburg, Russia, last month on a mission to save lives with math. The professor of management science and engineering sought to convince a conference of AIDS prevention officials from across Eastern Europe to look at the numbers. Her research team's model of AIDS in St. Petersburg shows that the official policy of leaving HIV-positive heroin addicts untreated is the worst option for slowing the epidemic's rapid and tragic spread. http://storybank.stanford.edu/article.php/contentID_31/tab_videos How can medical students practice surgery without placing patients at risk? Stanford surgeons and computer scientists are working together to create a hands-on surgical simulator with an incredibly realistic sense of touch. The project received special funding from Bio-X, part of Stanford's Initiative on Human Health. Bio-X brings together faculty from biology, medicine, engineering, and other fields so they can join forces to benefit patients. http://storybank.stanford.edu/article.php/contentID_32/tab_videos It may seem obvious that pregnant women and children are the most vulnerable to the health effects of toxins. But until recently, exposure to toxic substances such as pesticides was chiefly studied in only one subject group: adult males. Professor James O. Leckie set out to change that. http://storybank.stanford.edu/article.php/contentID_33/tab_videos Every thought, feeling and action originates from the electrical signals emitted by diverse brain cells enmeshed in a tangle of circuits. At this fundamental level, scientists struggle to explain the mind. Worse yet, they have lacked tools to understand what's going wrong in patients with ailments such as depression or Parkinson's disease. New Stanford-led research published in the April 5, 2007, issue of Nature describes a technique to directly control brain cell activity with light. It is a novel means for experimenting with neural circuits and could eventually lead to http://storybank.stanford.edu/article.php/contentID_35/tab_videos When heterosexual men are exposed to positive emotional stimuli-in this case, erotic photos of a man and woman-an area of the brain associated with anticipation of reward is stimulated, and men are more likely to take bigger financial risks than they otherwise would, according to a recent study at Stanford. http://storybank.stanford.edu/article.php/contentID_98/tab_videos At the turn of the 20th century, Americans' life expectancy at birth was 47. A century later, 30 years had been added.  The Center on Longevity, led by Professor Laura Carstensen, wants to help society capitalize on these longer life spans.  To that end, faculty from all seven Stanford schools will participate in the center's work.  "Our strength is research across disciplines-from economics to psychology to engineering," says Tom Rando, associate professor of neurology and neurological sciences and the center's deputy director. One area researchers will focus on is mobility-reversing http://storybank.stanford.edu/article.php/contentID_58/tab_videos Doctors may one day be able to detect early stages of colon cancer without a biopsy, using a new technique developed by researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine. http://storybank.stanford.edu/article.php/contentID_97/tab_videos Each increase of one degree Celsius caused by carbon dioxide in the atmosphere would lead to about 1,000 additional deaths annually in the United States alone, according to a new study. The work, by Mark Jacobson, Stanford professor of civil and environmental engineering, is the first to show a direct link between an increase in CO2 levels and resulting air pollution and an increase in human mortality. http://storybank.stanford.edu/article.php/contentID_65/tab_videos In India, HIV/AIDS is tough to talk about. Even as 2.5 million infected Indians spread the virus, many states have banned sex education in schools, and cultural taboos discourage people from seeking information on their own. To teach students about HIV in a culturally appropriate manner, Piya Sorcar, a doctoral student in the School of Education, created an interactive, animation-based tutorial that centers on a doctor's conversation with a curious patient. The program is designed to appeal to young adults and focuses on biological, rather than sexual, aspects of HIV http://storybank.stanford.edu/article.php/contentID_66/tab_videos Neural cells derived from human embryonic stem cells helped repair stroke-related damage in the brains of rats and led to improvements in their physical abilities after a stroke, according to a new study by researchers at the School of Medicine. http://storybank.stanford.edu/article.php/contentID_68/tab_videos Begin writing your summary... http://storybank.stanford.edu/article.php/contentID_76/tab_videos The biological arsenal that could be used for harm against humanity has an almost limitless supply of weaponry, thanks to nature's own talent for creating infectious agents of destruction. http://storybank.stanford.edu/article.php/contentID_109/tab_videos Doctors may one day be able to detect early stages of colon cancer without a biopsy, using a technique from researchers at the School of Medicine. http://storybank.stanford.edu/article.php/contentID_83/tab_videos Athletes who risk their careers by taking banned growth hormone to improve performance may not be getting the benefits they'd anticipated, according to a new analysis by researchers at the School of Medicine. http://storybank.stanford.edu/article.php/contentID_84/tab_videos In the first-ever brain imaging study of techniques for emotion regulation, researchers found that suppression actually led to increased stress levels. http://storybank.stanford.edu/article.php/contentID_86/tab_videos Researchers identified potential new targets for cancer treatments by disovering two new proteins making up telomerase, an enzyme that maintains cells' genetic material. http://storybank.stanford.edu/article.php/contentID_91/tab_videos Full video of the 10 week Google.org course on poverty and development, moderated by Stanford Program on Global Justice Director, Joshua Cohen, is now available on YouTube.com. http://storybank.stanford.edu/article.php/contentID_90/tab_videos Scientists have developed a new mouse model to help illuminate the vagaries of autism, according to a study from a Stanford University School of Medicine researcher and other colleagues. http://storybank.stanford.edu/article.php/contentID_92/tab_videos A follow-up study of postmenopausal women who took the combination of estrogen and progestin for more than five years shows an increased risk for breast cancer nearly three years after they quit taking the hormones. http://storybank.stanford.edu/article.php/contentID_93/tab_videos Creating sports teams composed exclusively of overweight children can slow their weight gain, according to Stanford researchers. The teams can also foster a newfound love of sports and physical activity that may launch them into a life of regular exercise. http://storybank.stanford.edu/article.php/contentID_94/tab_videos By this summer, thousands of images of every part of the body will be online in a newly digitized version of the Stanford University School of Medicine's world-renowned Bassett collection of human dissection.   http://storybank.stanford.edu/article.php/contentID_95/tab_videos Three young Americans and the Stanford Asian Liver Center seek to stop hepatitus B in China by immunizing 500,000 rural children and educating the community about the disease. http://storybank.stanford.edu/article.php/contentID_99/tab_videos Making rare cells available to researchers could hasten work on better cancer treatments. http://storybank.stanford.edu/article.php/contentID_102/tab_videos Building on a newly rigorous understanding of the building blocks of life, two bioengineering professor are custom engineering peptides, small snippets of proteins, to fight disease. http://storybank.stanford.edu/article.php/contentID_105/tab_videos Surprise finding in mice suggests that the creation of fused cells may open new doors to cell-mediated gene therapy. http://storybank.stanford.edu/article.php/contentID_113/tab_videos Despite the well-known dangers of high blood pressure, major shortfalls still exist in the screening, treatment and control of the disease even when patients are getting a doctor's care, according to a study from the School of Medicine. http://storybank.stanford.edu/article.php/contentID_116/tab_videos In the early 1990s, David Feldman, MD, and his team at the School of Medicine were the first to identify and call attention to the possible impact of low levels of bisphenol A on human health. Science writer Krista Conger catches up with Feldman, an emeritus professor of endocrinology, to learn more. http://storybank.stanford.edu/article.php/contentID_117/tab_videos A sophisticated combination of vascular imaging and patient-specific computer models can enable doctors to improve diagnosis and predict the outcomes of surgical interventions. http://storybank.stanford.edu/article.php/contentID_119/tab_videos Any hunter will tell you that when your quarry goes into hiding, you have to flush it out to get a good shot at it. Now, Stanford researchers have found a way to synthesize agents that can be tailored to flush HIV out into the open where the immune system and antiretroviral therapies can destroy it. http://storybank.stanford.edu/article.php/contentID_120/tab_videos "Biology is a science in flux because it has gone from being purely experimental on small scales to becoming an information science on a large scale," says Daphne Koller, who is is leveraging artificial intelligence to infer what's happening in complex biological systems. http://storybank.stanford.edu/article.php/contentID_125/tab_videos Researchers at the School of Medicine have published the first detailed description of how the intricate tree of airway tubes develops in mice. This knowledge could help doctors treat or prevent lung disease in humans, and it lays a foundation for future work in regenerating lung, pancreas or kidney tissues in the lab. http://storybank.stanford.edu/article.php/contentID_126/tab_videos Researchers at the School of Medicine have turned to the platypus to understand the genesis of an evolutionary tour de force that led to a reproductive advantage possessed by nearly all of today's mammals. http://storybank.stanford.edu/article.php/contentID_127/tab_videos A protein previously implicated in colon cancer now appears to have an additional role in preventing cells from dividing, a finding that could lead to new cancer therapies. http://storybank.stanford.edu/article.php/contentID_128/tab_videos For plastic surgeons hoping to avoid the potential wrath of a disgruntled patient, the best defense is a good offense, says Richard Goode, MD. http://storybank.stanford.edu/article.php/contentID_133/tab_videos A protein crucial to healthy cell growth now appears also to maintain stockpiles of bone marrow stem cells. This finding could lead to better techniques for growing stem cells in culture and for understanding the mechanism of some cancers. http://storybank.stanford.edu/article.php/contentID_134/tab_videos Rosamond Naylor and Walter Falcon confront the global food crisis, urging the United States to alter its current policies on biofuels, international food aid and agricultural research. http://storybank.stanford.edu/article.php/contentID_139/tab_videos Baseline survey precedes study of breast cancer rates and exposure to potential carcinogens. http://storybank.stanford.edu/article.php/contentID_140/tab_videos Begin writing your summary... http://storybank.stanford.edu/article.php/contentID_145/tab_videos The $50,000 threshhold for paying medical costs should be raised to $129,000, they say. http://storybank.stanford.edu/article.php/contentID_147/tab_videos The findings represent the largest and longest study of this treatment in pediatric transplant patients and may lead to a new standard of care for these children. http://storybank.stanford.edu/article.php/contentID_148/tab_videos A YouTube channel from Stanford made its debut Monday, featuring Oprah Winfrey's keynote speech at the university's Commencement ceremony on Sunday, June 15. The channel, at http://www.youtube.com/stanford, also includes nearly 200 other videos, and Stanford will continue to add additional content as it becomes available. http://storybank.stanford.edu/article.php/contentID_153/tab_videos While presidential candidates have been debating how the government could fix the U.S. health care system, students at the Graduate School of Business have been exploring how the system might be pushed to change through market forces. http://storybank.stanford.edu/article.php/contentID_154/tab_videos Although AIDS is often associated with younger adults, one in five patients was age 50 or older when their disease was diagnosed. http://storybank.stanford.edu/article.php/contentID_156/tab_videos This is your brain on Facebook. Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine used concepts borrowed from the popular social networking site to analyze the brains of people with Alzheimer's disease. http://storybank.stanford.edu/article.php/contentID_163/tab_videos Stanford researchers have developed a blood test that is a step toward identifying Alzheimer's disease two to six years before its onset. http://storybank.stanford.edu/article.php/contentID_164/tab_videos Stanford professor of emergency medicine, Robert Norris, is part of an effort to set up a formal emergency medicine training program for Iraqi health professionals for the first time in that nation's history. http://storybank.stanford.edu/article.php/contentID_166/tab_videos The theory that aging is caused by unavoidable wear and tear has dominated aging research. Stanford researchers have found evidence for an alternative theory that could lead to a new way to think about how to slow the aging process. http://storybank.stanford.edu/article.php/contentID_171/tab_videos Tobacco plants could act as safe, speedy factories for growing antibodies for personalized treatments against a common form of cancer, without the side effects of traditional chemotherapy. http://storybank.stanford.edu/article.php/contentID_172/tab_videos Recent research shows that personal digital assistants can help people to develop healthier eating and exercise habits. In one study, people with digital reminders exercised twice as much as a control group. http://storybank.stanford.edu/article.php/contentID_173/tab_videos A long-time question about chemotherapy has been how to get the most medication into the cells of a tumor without "spillover" affecting the healthy cells in a patient's body. Now researchers at Stanford University have addressed that problem using single-walled carbon nanotubes as delivery vehicles. http://storybank.stanford.edu/article.php/contentID_178/tab_videos