http://storybank.stanford.edu Stories of discovery and learning at Stanford en-us editor@mysite.com webmaster@mysite.com Story Bank Feed Creator The new Summer Institute for Entrepreneurship (SIE) is an intensive four-week business program offered by the GSB for Stanford grad students in non-business fields. The program combines team projects and workshops with guest speakers and visits to Silicon Valley companies ranging from start-ups to large firms, from high-tech to retail. http://storybank.stanford.edu/article.php/contentID_4/tab_videos 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 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 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 Joining forces under Stanford's International Initiative, Stanford faculty are working to identify particular problem areas in "human well-being" using their combined expertise with the aim of proposing effective policy solutions. One of the first areas to emerge as a priority is the lives of children, especially in developing countries where many factors contribute negatively to their health, education, and overall living conditions. With the goal of promoting further research in the area, the group recently hosted a seminar to examine the endangered childhoods of juveniles in countries under stress due http://storybank.stanford.edu/article.php/contentID_11/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 You may not know it, but it is likely you need the services of a computational mathematician. Lucky for you, you're at Stanford. Engineering has always had two pillars: theory and experimentation. Computational mathematics-the result of the dizzying increase in computers' ability to compute-has now created a third pillar, uniting the other two. Modeling and simulation are now possible to such a degree that they play a role equal to that of theoretical math and hands-on experimentation. http://storybank.stanford.edu/article.php/contentID_15/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 What makes Stanford different, according to the people at the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design, otherwise known as the d.school, is "design thinking," the philosophy that good process ensures good ends and that problems can be solved through observation. The idea is that any problem can be approached from an experiential, observational, hands-on manner. Watch and listen, figure out the problem, then solve it. http://storybank.stanford.edu/article.php/contentID_20/tab_videos Terrorism, notes Stanford Law School Professor Allen S. Weiner, is a surprisingly unexamined phenomenon given the gravity of the problem. So when the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI) at Stanford announced new grants for interdisciplinary research and teaching on critically important global issues, Weiner teamed up with his colleague Amir Eshel, professor of German Studies and Comparative Literature, to seize the opportunity to create a new course to examine modern terrorism. http://storybank.stanford.edu/article.php/contentID_22/tab_videos "When people ask me what I'm doing with my new Environmental Engineering PhD from Stanford," says Matthew Davie, "they're pretty surprised when I tell them that I'm starting a travel agency." Ask a few more questions, though, and it starts to make sense.  The newly launched agency, Whole Travel, Inc., was developed in Evaluating Entrepreneurial Opportunities, an integrated lab course at Stanford's Graduate School of Business. Requiring at least two MBA students to collaborate with a non-MBA student, the class guides students through the process of evaluating a business opportunity http://storybank.stanford.edu/article.php/contentID_23/tab_videos In 2003, Secretary-General Kofi Annan formed a blue-ribbon commission to document global threats and recommend a new course of action for the U.N.-heavy tasks. A key appointment was Stanford's Stephen Stedman, senior fellow at the Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC) at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI), who was tapped as the panel's research director. http://storybank.stanford.edu/article.php/contentID_26/tab_videos What is a honeybee worth? Or the serenity of an unspoiled nature preserve, alive with native species? Both have value, but quantifying that value when making land-use and conservation decisions is a complicated and largely unknown process. To address that problem, Stanford has joined with The Nature Conservancy and the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) to create the Natural Capital Project. This interdisciplinary research effort is designed to make conservation attractive and commonplace by developing a new process for incorporating the values of nature into decision making. http://storybank.stanford.edu/article.php/contentID_28/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 The Internet is enough of a marvel that most people would never ask, "Is this really how we would build it if we could design it all today?" But asking that very question is the job of a broad-based team of Stanford researchers. Taking a nothing-is-sacred approach to better meet human communications needs, they recently launched a new program called the Clean Slate Design for the Internet. They presented their ideas March 2007 during a day-long workshop at the annual meeting of the Stanford Computer Forum. http://storybank.stanford.edu/article.php/contentID_30/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 Jeremy Bailenson, assistant professor of communication, is director of Stanford's Virtual Human Interaction Lab. In this video, he demonstrates how an avatar can mimic movement and discusses how this ability can influence interactions in cyberspace. http://storybank.stanford.edu/article.php/contentID_54/tab_videos The Stanford Photonics Research Center 2007 Symposium provided an overview of the many exciting uses of lasers, optics and photonics technologies in a wide array of scientific disciplines and commercial applications. Academic research scientists, senior managers from major companies, funding agency personnel, and members of the investment community attended the event.   http://storybank.stanford.edu/article.php/contentID_39/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 The official dedication of the Jerry Yang and Akiko Yamazaki Environment and Energy Building on March 4 underscores the university's broader commitment to finding ways to reduce its carbon footprint - its amount of greenhouse gas emissions - in the coming years. http://storybank.stanford.edu/article.php/contentID_71/tab_videos A project to enhance health security and child survival in Africa through improvements in water and sanitation, an inquiry into the management practices of Indian firms, a study of the courts, politics, and human rights, and an analysis of the Middle East and the stability and prosperity of the world economy were recipients of new grants totaling just under $1 million from Stanford's Presidential Fund for Innovation in International Studies (PFIIS) in mid-February 2008. http://storybank.stanford.edu/article.php/contentID_75/tab_videos Begin writing your summary... http://storybank.stanford.edu/article.php/contentID_76/tab_videos Jerry Yang and Akiko Yamazaki joined President Hennessy at the dedication of the Y2E2 Building, which will bring together researchers from all of the university's seven schools into one energy-efficient building to work together on environmental issues. http://storybank.stanford.edu/article.php/contentID_79/tab_videos Stanford's Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Environment and Resources (IPER), seeks to create and inspire new types of scholars and leaders. Bringing diverse academic backgrounds and life experiences from all over the world, IPER students pioneer innovative approaches to society's biggest environmental challenges. http://storybank.stanford.edu/article.php/contentID_80/tab_videos The old adage that you get what you pay for really is true when it comes to that most ephemeral of products: bottled wine. http://storybank.stanford.edu/article.php/contentID_101/tab_videos Can an automated voice help people drive more safely? What are the privacy implications of the ability of cars to collect information about their drivers? Professor Clifford Nass is exploring these and other questions. http://storybank.stanford.edu/article.php/contentID_123/tab_videos The next major space observatory, GLAST, is about to begin gathering new information about subatomic particles, black holes, and the birth and evolution of the universe. http://storybank.stanford.edu/article.php/contentID_146/tab_videos The new Science and Engineering Quad brings together scholars from dozens of departments to turn basic discoveries into life-changing breakthroughs. http://storybank.stanford.edu/article.php/contentID_165/tab_videos