Guest Olivier Gevaert is an expert in multi-modal biomedical data modeling and recently developed new methods in the new science of “spatial transcriptomics” that are able to predict how cancer cells present spatially and will behave in the future. Tumors are not monolithic, he says, but made up of various cell types. Spatial transcriptomics measures cells in the undisturbed organization of the tumor itself and enables a more detailed study of tumors. This new technology can be used to determine...
Mar 15, 2024•30 min•Ep. 242
Rebecca Silverman is an expert in how humans learn to read. It’s a complex process, she says. First we must connect letters and sounds to decode words in texts. Researchers know a lot about the decoding process and how to teach it. But, beyond that, we must also comprehend what the words in texts are conveying. Comprehension is complex, and researchers know much less about the comprehension process and how to teach it, Silverman tells host Russ Altman on this episode of Stanford Engineering’s Th...
Mar 08, 2024•30 min•Ep. 241
Professor and cultural psychologist Michele Gelfand’s latest book, Rule Makers, Rule Breakers , explores notions of what she calls “tight” and “loose” cultures, and how each shapes us as individuals and the world around us. Tight cultures closely follow unwritten cultural norms, while those on the looser side have more latitude. Culture is complicated, she says, but understanding its nuances is key to understanding the world, Gelfand tells host Russ Altman on this episode of Stanford Engineering...
Mar 01, 2024•32 min•Ep. 240
We’re taking you into our archive of over 250 episodes to re-share an interview Russ Altman did in 2022 with Stanford Medicine Professor of Surgery, Carla Pugh . Performing surgery is profoundly complex and requires precision, dexterity and lots of practice. Dr. Pugh shares about how she’s studying the movements of skilled surgeons to better understand what makes them successful, which can in turn help to improve training for new surgeons. Episode Reference Links: Technology Enabled Clinical Imp...
Feb 23, 2024•28 min
Mark Skylar-Scott is one of the world’s foremost experts on the 3D printing of human tissue, cell by cell. It’s a field better known as bioprinting. But Skylar-Scott hopes to take things to a level most never imagined. He and his collaborators are working to bioprint an entire living, working human heart. We’re printing biology, Skylar-Scott tells host Russ Altman on this episode of Stanford Engineering’s The Future of Everything podcast. Episode Reference Links: Skylar-Scott Lab Connect With Us...
Feb 16, 2024•29 min•Ep. 239
Cognitive scientist Michael Frank studies differences in how children and AI learn language. There is a “data gap” between the billions of words ChatGPT has to work with and the millions of words a toddler is exposed to. But, says Frank, children learn in a rich social context that supports their learning. He’s currently conducting the “ BabyView Study ,” where he puts cameras on young children's heads to help him understand their learning experience, as Frank tells host Russ Altman on this epis...
Feb 09, 2024•31 min
We’re re-running an important episode on Alzheimer’s disease — a topic that touches many people. We still don’t have a complete understanding of the disease and that makes it hard to design effective therapies. In 2022, Russ Altman sat down with mechanical engineer Ellen Kuhl who offered a glimpse into the way she’s using computational modeling to help improve our understanding of Alzheimer’s disease. Connect With Us: Episode Transcripts >>> The Future of Everything Website Connect with Russ >>>...
Feb 02, 2024•27 min
Ran Abramitzky studies the economic history of immigration by tapping into now-public government records and using AI to chart changing attitudes on immigration captured in written documents and official speeches. What’s revealed is a remarkable story that often diverges from conventional wisdom. Not all streets were paved with gold, Abramitzky tells host Russ Altman , himself a descendant of immigrants, on this episode of Stanford Engineering’s The Future of Everything podcast. Connect With Us:...
Jan 26, 2024•28 min
We’re re-releasing a wonderful episode about the positive impact art has on individual and societal health. Guest Deborah Cullinan, vice president for the arts at Stanford, shares how including just 10-20 minutes of art in your day — whether through drawing or dancing to your favorite song — can contribute to improved health. Her insights remind us, and hopefully will remind you as well, that art plays a valuable role in both individual and societal well being. Connect With Us: Episode Transcrip...
Jan 19, 2024•29 min
As the pandemic made a doctor visit as easy as a Zoom call and computer vision proved able to distinguish a benign blemish from something more worrisome, guest Eleni Linos , MD, DrPH, grew fascinated with the many ways digital technologies will impact all of medicine, not just her specialty, dermatology. She now believes the future of digital health is the future of health, period. But much work remains to ensure those benefits extend to every sector of society. Linos previews the future of digi...
Jan 12, 2024•31 min•Ep. 236
To kick off 2024, we’re bringing you an episode that’s been one of our most popular. The timing is just right as many of us are headed into the new year thinking about how to live better. In this episode, Professor Helen Blau , a stem cell biologist, tells us all about how she’s recruiting stem cells to regenerate youthful muscle in older people. We’re thrilled to bring this episode out of the archives for another listen and renewed hope about possibilities ahead in the world of health. Happy Ne...
Jan 05, 2024•27 min
Russ's curated playlist of six episodes from our archive to accompany you through the holiday season & into the new year. Curated Episode Links : Is it time to rethink philanthropy? (Robert Reich) --> YouTube or Episode Page The future of the gut microbiome (KC Huang) --> YouTube or Episode Page How 3D printing is changing medicine (Joseph DeSimone) --> YouTube or Episode Page The future of computational linguistics (Chris Manning) --> YouTube or Episode Page Why physical books will always be wi...
Dec 20, 2023•1 min
Professor Michael Fischbach, tells us that the “gut biome” – that is, the complex community of bacteria that lives in our gastrointestinal tract – is what makes digesting and extracting nutrients from those meals possible. We hope you’ll tune in. Connect With Us: Episode Transcripts >>> The Future of Everything Website Connect with Russ >>> Threads / Bluesky / Mastodon Connect with School of Engineering >>> Twitter/X / Instagram / LinkedIn / Facebook Chapters: (00:00:00) Introduction to Microbio...
Dec 15, 2023•28 min
Professor Stephen Quake's research has helped countless patients avoid the pain and suffering that can come with invasive diagnostic testing. Russ and Stephen discuss his work to develop a number of noninvasive blood tests to help detect preterm births, genetic disorders like Down Syndrome, cancer, and organ transplant rejection. It’s an episode that reminds us of the power of good science. We hope you’ll take another listen and enjoy. Connect With Us: Episode Transcripts >>> The Future of Every...
Dec 08, 2023•27 min
Guest Percy Liang is an authority on AI who says that we are undergoing a paradigm shift in AI powered by foundation models, which are general-purpose models trained at immense scale, such as ChatGPT. In this episode of Stanford Engineering’s The Future of Everything podcast, Liang tells host Russ Altman about how foundation models are built, how to evaluate them, and the growing concerns with lack of openness and transparency. Connect With Us: Episode Transcripts >>> The Future of Everything We...
Dec 01, 2023•36 min
Guest Alex Konings studies fundamental links between the global cycle of water percolating into the ground and evaporating into the skies and a similar cycle of carbon moving through the world, shaping ecosystems, droughts, and fires. These cycles are inextricably bound, she says, and understanding how they function individually and in tandem is key to life on planet Earth. These important cycles may be easily overlooked but they cannot be ignored, Konings tells host Russ Altman on this episode ...
Nov 17, 2023•31 min•Ep. 234
We’re re-running a fascinating conversation Russ had with Zhenan Bao back in 2017 about the work she and her lab are doing to develop artificial skin. The possible applications of a material that could replicate properties of human skin range from restoring a sense of touch for amputees to creating bendable electronics. Thank you for tuning in, we hope you enjoy this episode from the archives. Connect With Us: Episode Transcripts >>> The Future of Everything Website Connect with Russ >>> Threads...
Nov 10, 2023•27 min
Space exploration and travel are two topics that are always exciting, and that have sparked a lot of enthusiasm about the future. Debbie Senesky , a previous guest on the show, researches ways to develop tiny, tough electronics that could help augment our abilities to further explore extreme environments, such as those found in space. Today we’re re-running a conversation Russ had with Debbie in 2017 on this topic. Enjoy. Connect With Us: Episode Transcripts >>> The Future of Everything Website ...
Nov 03, 2023•26 min
Using math to improve photographs, with expert guest Gordon Wetzstein . Such methods have exploded in recent years and have wide-ranging impacts from improving your family photos, to making self-driving cars safer, to building ever-more-powerful microscopes. Somewhere in between hardware and software, he says, is the field of computational imaging, which makes cameras do some pretty amazing things. Wetzstein and host Russ Altman bring it all into focus on this episode of Stanford Engineering’s T...
Oct 27, 2023•36 min•Ep. 233
Almost everyone knows someone who has battled cancer. Today, on The Future of Everything , we’re re-running our episode with Professor Jennifer Cochran who is bringing some hope in this area through work she and her lab are doing to find ways to localize therapies directly to the site of cancer tumors for more efficient and effective treatment. You won’t want to miss this one, it’s full of inspiring insights that will hopefully move us toward a future of improving outcomes for cancer patients. C...
Oct 20, 2023•28 min
Transformational research techniques shaping our understanding of how the brain works. Guest Karl Deisseroth is a bioengineer and a psychiatrist who has developed two of the most transformational research techniques shaping our understanding of how the brain works — optogenetics, which allows neuroscientists to control brain cells with light, and CLARITY, a way to render the brain’s gray matter transparent yet retain all its intricate wiring for easier study. There is a vast chasm between neuros...
Oct 13, 2023•33 min•Ep. 232
A perspective on the need for diversity and empathy in the engineering profession. As we enter a new academic year, it’s an opportune time to think about how we’re educating the next generation of engineers. Russ's conversation in 2020 with Sheri Sheppard , an emeritus professor of mechanical engineering and founder of the Designing Education Lab at Stanford, sheds light on this important topic. Professor Sheppard shares about ways that will help us educate engineers who not only are technically...
Oct 06, 2023•29 min
Discover how quantum mechanics is reshaping our understanding of time, reestablishing computational capabilities, and ensuring the security of sensitive data transmission. Guest Monika Schleier-Smith is a physicist who says that quantum principles, like entanglement, can make atoms do funny things, such as allowing two atoms to share secrets across great distances. While entanglement opens tantalizing possibilities like quantum computing, there’s still much we don’t know about quantum mechanics....
Sep 29, 2023•33 min•Ep. 231
Discover the astonishing intricacies of microbial ecosystems and their potential to improve healthcare. Guest KC Huang is many things: A bioengineer. A microbiologist. An inventor. But mostly he’s an expert on the ecology of the human gut. He and his collaborators have developed a device that can sample bacterial DNA and create a living map of the gut microbiome from mouth to … ah, well … you know. Every step of the way, he says, we play host to trillions of guests we know very little about. It’...
Sep 22, 2023•32 min•Ep. 230
Guest Jane Willenbring is a geoscientist who studies accelerating coastal erosion. The challenge lies not in understanding why coasts are receding today, but in determining what they looked like a thousand years ago to know how much they’ve changed — a secret revealed in coastal rocks through isotopes shaped by cosmic radiation. But measurement is only one part of the equation, she says. We must now think about erosion’s impact on humans, Willenbring tells host Russ Altman on this episode of Sta...
Sep 15, 2023•30 min•Ep. 229
Join host Russ Altman with guest Rania Awaad , M.D., a Clinical Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the Stanford University School of Medicine where she is the Director of the Stanford Muslim Mental Health & Islamic Psychology Lab. Delve into the intersection of mental health and spirituality, shedding light on the importance of holistic approaches for comprehensive healing. Drawing from historical wisdom, Awaad introduces the concept of Maristans, ancient healing centers that integrate physica...
Sep 08, 2023•29 min•Ep. 228
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 a source’s qualifications. And third, to more rigorously question those who go against consensus. The whole goal of science is consensus , Osborne tells host Russ Altman on this episode of Stanford Enginee...
Sep 01, 2023•31 min•Ep. 227
The Future of computer chip design: delve into a revolutionary approach to chip design. A re-run of a conversation Russ had in 2021 with Priyanka Raina , an assistant professor of electrical engineering. Priya is an expert in computer chip design. Whether or not you realize it, chips are everywhere and power everything from your toaster to your car. Priya discusses the slowing pace of progress in improving chip efficiency, and how she sees a future where chip makers will need to shift away from ...
Aug 25, 2023•28 min
Today we're rerunning a conversation Russ had in 2020 with Mykel Kochenderfer , a professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics at Stanford University. Mykel's research has impacted anyone who has been on a plane recently for any kind of travel. His research led to the creation of a program known as the Airborne Collision Avoidance System, or ACAS X , which as he explains in more detail, is a critical tool in keeping air travel safe. Thank you for tuning in, and we hope you enjoy this episode from t...
Aug 18, 2023•28 min
Guest David Rehkopf is an expert in population health who says that where we live is one of the strongest influences on how long we live. While we know diet and health care are important, it has been tough to tease out what about these places allows people to live longer and healthier lives. By examining environmentally induced changes in DNA, we may be able to more quickly and more accurately quantify what aspects of environments promote longer, healthier lives, Rehkopf tells host Russ Altman i...
Aug 11, 2023•30 min•Ep. 226
