The Future of Everything
Episodes
James Zou: Trust is AI’s most critical contribution to health care
20 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Among the many areas James Zou might have chosen to apply his considerable knowledge of artificial intelligence, he opted for health care. It was the ...
Johan Ugander: How misinformation spreads faster than truth
07 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Stanford professor Johan Ugander is an expert in making sense of messy data. Lately he’s been working to tell fact from fiction online, as news ...
Martin Fischer: AI and virtual reality can help society build better
06 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
For a profession that has existed essentially since the beginning of human civilization, few people fully appreciate the importance of construction in...
Gill Bejerano: How cryptogenomics advances both science and privacy
05 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Much of what the world knows about genetic diseases is learned by comparing the DNA of people with a shared disease against the DNA of otherwise healt...
Cynthia Lee: How to teach computer science
13 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
As the field of computer science has evolved over the last half century, so too has the way in which computer science is taught and to whom it is taug...
Chelsea Finn: How to make artificial intelligence more meta
15 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In one of computer science’s more meta moments, professor Chelsea Finn created an AI algorithm to evaluate the coding projects of her students. The ...
Kayvon Fatahalian: How the pandemic changed the virtual world
03 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
For experts in digital graphics and visual perception, like computer scientist Kayvon Fatahalian, the recent pandemic has been a call to arms. Fatahal...
Kuang Xu: How to make (and keep) genetic data private
18 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
One underappreciated fact about the explosion in genetic databases, like consumer sites that provide information about ancestry and health, is that th...
Eric Appel: Gels are changing the face of engineering ... and medicine
04 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Readers of Eric Appel’s academic profile will note appointments in materials science, bioengineering and pediatrics, as well as fellowship appointme...
Lianne Kurina: How controlling confounders makes better epidemiology
01 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
As the world has learned through the recent pandemic, epidemiological studies can be complicated by many unanticipated factors. Lianne Kurina is an ex...
Priyanka Raina: How computer chips get speedier through specialization
18 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
For decades, the general-purpose central processing unit—the CPU—has been the workhorse of the computer industry. It could handle any task—liter...
Biondo Biondi: How to measure an earthquake through the internet
24 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Most people know the seismograph, those ultrasensitive instruments that record every small shift in the Earth’s crust.But did you know that the very...
Emmanuel Candès: How to increase certainty in predictive modeling
23 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Anyone who’s ever made weekend plans based on the weather forecast knows that prediction – about anything – is a tough business. But predictive ...
Srabanti Chowdhury: New forms of semiconductors are key to the future
19 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Electronics are everywhere these days, so much so that often we don't even register that we are using them. The use of electronics will only grow over...
Simona Onori: How ready are we for our electric future?
27 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
It now seems more certain than ever that the world will make the all-important transition to electric vehicles, but that shift raises important questi...
Irene Lo: How math makes markets fairer
26 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Engineer Irene Lo studies markets, but not traditional marketplaces based in cash.Instead, she studies markets for goods/resources that place a high v...
Joseph DeSimone: How 3D printing is changing medicine
13 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Oft-heralded 3-dimensional printers can build objects ranging from simple spoons to advanced running shoes.While those objects are usually made very s...
Tina Hernandez-Boussard: How data improves the quality of health care
12 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Tina Hernandez-Boussard is an expert in biomedical informatics who says a new era of understanding the real outcomes of our health care systems is on ...
Nate Persily: How to restore faith in America’s elections
03 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Nate Persily is a professor at Stanford Law School and an expert in election law.He sees the most recent presidential election as a fundamental change...
Krishna Shenoy: How brain-computer connections could end paralysis
02 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Whether by injury or disease, paralysis has afflicted humans through the ages.Only now have science and technology converged to a point where scientis...
Sam Wineburg: How to improve American students’ fact-checking skills
16 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Sam Wineburg, a research psychologist at Stanford’s Graduate School of Education, recently conducted a nationwide study of the fact-checking skills ...
Julie Parsonnet: How faith in herd immunity may be misplaced
16 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Many have now become familiar with the term herd immunity, an idea few outside the infectious disease community knew just a few short months ago.It’...
Maneesh Agrawala: How AI is changing video editing
04 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Imagine typing words into a text editor and watching on a nearby television as a well-known celebrity speaks those words within seconds.Computer graph...
Noah Rosenberg: How biology is becoming more mathematical
03 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Biology is not typically considered a mathematically intensive science, says Noah Rosenberg, an expert in genetics, but all that is about to change.Ma...
Ram Rajagopal: How the grid is becoming more human-centric
22 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Slowly but surely, the highly centralized, industrial electric grid that supplies power to the vast majority of American homes and business is changin...
Meagan Mauter: How freshwater supply is becoming more circular
21 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The world’s once linear — take it, treat it, use it, dispose it — model of freshwater usage is changing fast.Despite two-thirds of Earth being c...
Catherine Gorle: How cityscapes catch the wind
07 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Humankind has long harnessed the wind to its advantage. From ancient mariners to millers grinding grist, the wind has been an ally for millennia, but ...
Anthony Kinslow: How to close the clean-energy divide
06 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
As the world moves to more efficient and cleaner energy solutions, there is a growing divide between the clean-energy haves and have-nots, says Anthon...
Kunle Olukotun: How to make AI more democratic
27 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Electrical engineer Kunle Olukotun has built a career out of building computer chips for the world. These days his attention is focused on new-age chi...
Julie Owono: How local voices will shape the global internet
09 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Julie Owono is a lawyer, executive director of Internet Sans Frontières and a fellow at the Stanford Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society. She wa...
Dan Jurafsky: How AI is changing our understanding of language
08 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Words are a window into human psychology, society, and culture, says Stanford linguist and computer scientist Dan Jurafsky. The words we choose reveal...
Riitta Katila: How diversity drives innovation
19 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
When Riitta Katila looks at old photos or movies about the space program of the 1960s, she sees one common thread among the people depicted there — ...
David Miller: How light could transform computing
10 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
As the silicon chip embarks upon its second half-century of dominance in computing and communications, the field is confronting fundamental boundaries...
Jin Hyung Lee: How can we systematically cure brain diseases?
05 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In recent decades, medical and biological science have advanced by leaps and bounds using technologies that allow us to peer into the brain in myriad ...
Mark Schnitzer: How to better understand the brain
29 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Stanford’s Mark Schnitzer says several of the more exciting recent advances in his field of applied physics have come through developing new imaging...
Mutale Nkonde: How to get more truth from social media
23 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The old maxim holds that a lie spreads much faster than a truth, but it has taken the global reach and lightning speed of social media to lay it bare ...
Karen Liu: How robots perceive the physical world
15 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Stanford’s Karen Liu is a computer scientist who works in robotics. She hopes that someday machines might take on caregiving roles, like helping med...
Jef Caers: How better mineral exploration makes better batteries
08 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
It has been said that batteries hold the key to a sustainable future.But so-called “clean energy” does not come without environmental costs. For i...
Evan Reed: How to discover a magic material
10 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Evan Reed and a team of scientists recently identified a promising solid material that could replace highly flammable liquid electrolytes in lithium-i...
Renée DiResta: How to beat bad information
18 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Renée DiResta is research manager at the Stanford Internet Observatory, a multi-disciplinary center that focuses on abuses of information technology,...
Will Tarpeh: How to take the waste out of wastewater
13 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Once the bathwater is drained, the toilet flushed or the laundry done, few give a passing thought to the wastewater that leaves our homes. But chemica...
Kwabena Boahen: How to build a super-efficient super-computer
09 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Bioengineer Kwabena Boahen builds highly efficient “neuromorphic” supercomputers modeled on the human brain. He hopes they will drive the artifici...
Daphne Koller: How machine learning is transforming drug discovery
02 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In a world where a drug takes years and billions of dollars to develop, just one in 20 candidates makes it to market. Daphne Koller is betting artific...
Markus Covert: How to build a computer model of a cell
19 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
When Stanford bioengineer Markus Covert first decided to create a computer model able to simulate the behavior of a single cell, he was held back by m...
Rafael Pelayo: How to get a good night’s sleep
23 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
COVID-19 is changing how many scientists, like Stanford sleep expert Rafael Pelayo, MD, view their field. First off, the shift to telemedicine is prov...
Marietje Schaake: Can democracy survive in a digital world?
21 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Marietje Schaake was a Member of the European Parliament from 2009 to 2019 and now serves as the international policy director at Stanford University...
Andrew Huberman: How stress affects the mind — and how to relieve it
18 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Andrew Huberman is a Stanford neurobiologist and ophthalmologist keenly interested in the biology of stress and ways to manage stress.He’s developed...
Manu Prakash: How to beat a pandemic on a budget
26 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Manu Prakash was in France when COVID-19 took hold throughout the world. There, the Stanford bioengineer, famous for “frugal science” like his ...
Byron Reeves: What our screens tell us about us
15 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
With the emergence of touchscreen smartphones, tablets and watches, so much of our lives is spent on our devices that in many ways we are what appears...
Newsha Ajami: How engineers restored hope for our water supplies
12 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
There was a time when all great cities were built near water. Whether for agriculture, aesthetics, energy or just plain drinking, water was a life-aff...
Susan Holmes: How statistics are reshaping our understanding of biology
03 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In recent years, biologists have learned that the vaginal microbiome — the make-up of the bacteria in the vagina — during pregnancy may be the...
Sheri Sheppard: How do we educate a new kind of engineer?
18 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Mechanical engineer Sheri Sheppard got her start in engineering working on the Corvette for General Motors and later worked for both Ford and Chrysler...
Jonathan Chen: Can algorithms make doctors better?
06 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
We’re all familiar with those algorithms on our favorite e-commerce and streaming services that recommend purchases, books or movies based on what “...
Mykel Kochenderfer: AI and Safety-Critical Systems
23 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Artificial intelligence can help us design safety-critical systems for aircraft and other vehicles that are more robust to the many sources of uncerta...
Pamela Chen: How meme culture and algorithms are reshaping photography
17 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
With a degree in photography with a concentration in mathematics and boasting high-profile jobs at two of the most influential visual outlets in the l...
Michael O'Sullivan: Data leads New Zealand’s COVID-19 response
11 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Stanford engineering alumnus Michael O’Sullivan, now at the University of Auckland, likes to say his business is the “science of decision-making,”...
Megan Palmer: COVID-19’s scientific silver lining
12 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Megan Palmer, executive director of Biopolicy and Leadership Initiatives at Stanford, joins bioengineer Russ Altman for this episode of Stanford Engin...
Catherine Blish: Immunology is on the trail of a killer
27 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
As she tells it, the life of immunologist Catherine Blish has not changed all that much from what it was just a couple months ago.Her lab still studie...
Seema Yasmin: How to conquer a pandemic with communication
16 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Seema Yasmin is a rarity in public health: a medical doctor who is also a journalist. As such, she’s seen a lot, from Ebola in West Africa to SARS a...
Victor Carrion: How to beat stress in a pandemic
16 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Child psychiatrist Victor Carrion has dedicated his career to studying and helping people deal with trauma, especially kids. He says that it is unders...
Sanjay Basu: The power of healthy eating
13 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
When humans roamed as hunters and gatherers, the ability to retain calories likely determined who lived and who died in times of famine.Today, that ev...
Alison Marsden: Computer models could transform cardiovascular surgery
13 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Imagine being born with just half a heart. Alison Marsden does, pretty much every day. She is an associate professor of pediatrics specializing in c...
Jayodita Sanghvi and Grace Tang: Big data meets big business
13 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Jayodita Sanghvi is director of data science at Grand Rounds, a startup that connects members to high-quality health care. Grace Tang is a data scient...
William Chueh: How to build a better battery
10 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Stanford materials engineer William Chueh got interested in battery design as way to battle climate change. He looked across the energy landscape and ...
Russ Altman: Artificial intelligence takes on COVID-19
09 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Days after COVID-19 broke out in the United States, Russ Altman and colleagues at Stanford's Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence (HAI...
John Etchemendy: How can we get the most from artificial intelligence?
08 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The co-director of Stanford’s Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence discusses how AI can reach its potential to enhance human capabil...
Nigam Shah: A researcher turns to data to fight the COVID-19 virus
08 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
An expert in bioinformatics describes how better information and modeling can help caregivers stay a step ahead of the new virus. Connect With Us: Ep...
Alex Dunn: When cells communicate by nudging one another
03 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
New research explores how physical pushing and pulling between cells helps them differentiate into the myriad cell types in the body. Have you ever p...
Fiorenza Micheli: The race to save the ocean
17 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
A marine scientist travels the world to understand whether and how the ocean will respond to climate change, overfishing and other challenges. Fioren...
Nick Ouellette: What flocks of birds can tell us about engineering
06 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
A civil engineer explains how new insights gleaned from the flight of birds may one day be applied to fields as far-ranging as autonomous cars and cro...
Shaili Jain: Treatments for PTSD are more effective than ever
29 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
How a revealing father-daughter conversation led to a career dedicated to studying and treating severe trauma and stress-related disorders. Shaili Ja...
Michelle Mello: Patient privacy and the law are on a collision course
24 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
A rapidly shifting legal debate is raging in healthcare over patient data and privacy. One legal expert says that even though regulations have lagged,...
Bonnie Maldonado: The science is clear. Vaccinations save lives.
19 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
An expert in infectious diseases says that vaccinations are more powerful than ever, but better communication by the medical community is needed to co...
Simone D’Amico: “The Swarm” is coming to an orbit near you
13 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The geostationary satellites used for communication and weather forecasting today are very large and very expensive — and most are still functioning...
Jelena Vuckovic: Photonics — a light on the computing horizon
24 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Photonics engineers are working toward a day when fast, energy efficient computers do their mathematics using photons — packets of light — instead...
Sharon Chinthrajah: The air is making us sick
21 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Connect With Us:Episode Transcripts >>> The Future of Everything WebsiteConnect with Russ >>> Threads / Bluesky / MastodonConnect wi...
Emma Brunskill: Amped-up education with AI
10 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Computer programs that purport to help humans learn have been around almost as long as there have been computer programs, but their track record for s...
Scott Delp: Better gait, better life
13 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
A biomechanical engineer explains how new diagnostics and improved understanding of human movement are yielding great leaps forward in the treatment o...
Stephen Quake: What can the DNA in your blood reveal about your health?
22 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Russ Altman: Today on The Future of Everything, the future of detecting DNA in your blood.Now DNA is the building block of life. It is a relatively si...
Elizabeth Sattely: Plants are the ultimate chemists
15 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
They make a remarkable array of chemicals to survive the world around them. One engineer is using that knowledge to help people live better. When thi...
Ross Shachter: Can AI improve mammography?
25 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
In breast cancer pathology, a 2 percent chance of malignancy is the accepted threshold at which a radiologist refers the patient for further study. In...
Ash Alizadeh: A New Age in Oncology
18 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
In cancer detection, could a blood test replace a biopsy? Once, when a cancer was suspected, the next move often involved a biopsy – literally cutt...
Margot Gerritsen: How to get more women into data science
11 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Women face many roadblocks to careers in data science and other STEM disciplines. One Stanford professor is out to change perceptions and realities fo...
Mildred Cho: Ethics in the age of easy gene editing
04 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
How do new technologies and techniques for altering DNA get used? And who gets to use them? In recent years, the development of inexpensive genetic ...
Lynn Hildemann: What pollutants are lurking in our indoor spaces?
27 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
An expert on air quality talks about the hidden dangers inside our homes and offers some helpful tips on what you can do to reduce your exposure. We ...
Steven Collins: New prosthetics should be better than the real thing
20 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
A mechanical engineer explains how more and better data is helping to create new prosthetics unlike any before. For years prosthetic limbs were merel...
Ami Bhatt: Lessons from the microbial world living within us
13 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Russ Altman: Today, on The Future of Everything, the future of the microbiome. Now, the microbiome has gotten a lot of attention in the last few years...
Mehran Sahami: The evolution of computer science education
23 Aug 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Once the core American curriculum meant reading, writing and arithmetic, but Stanford professor Mehran Sahami says we might soon have to add a fourth ...
John Markoff: The past, present and future of Silicon Valley
16 Aug 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Russ Altman: Today, on The Future of Everything the future of Silicon Valley. Periodically, in human history every now and then there is an unusual mi...
Sylvia Plevritis: Better cancer treatment through data
19 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Biomedical data scientist Sylvia Plevritis is an expert in computational modeling of cancer risk and treatment options hidden in the remarkable quant...
James Landay: What’s next in human-computer interaction?
19 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Computers are everywhere and humans are engaging with them in nearly everything they do. Knowing this, the question becomes: How do we design a world ...
Jeremy Weinstein: Technology in the public interest
12 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Political scientist Jeremy Weinstein has worked at both the White House and the United Nations. In both jobs, he encountered the ethical and policy co...
Kari Nadeau: Science takes on food allergies
28 Jun 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Once avoidance was the only answer, but a leading allergist says that advances in desensitizing allergies are challenging common convention. Food all...
Monica Lam: Privacy in the age of virtual assistants
04 Jun 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Can we reap the benefits of artificial intelligence while also protecting our personal information? From scheduling appointments to setting the therm...
Sharad Goel: How hidden bias affects the criminal justice system
31 May 2019
Contributed by Lukas
In-depth statistical analyses show time and again that subtle, unconscious bias is pervasive in the American justice system. The bigger question, howe...
Paul Yock: Innovation in medical technology
06 May 2019
Contributed by Lukas
When Stanford’s Paul Yock was a young interventional cardiologist, he was frustrated by the complex, two-person process required to deliver life-sav...
Margaret Brandeau: Math and computers help reshape health policy
06 May 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Margaret Brandeau may carry a business card that reads Professor of Management Science and Engineering, but her expertise is in using complex systems ...
Tony Oro: Stem cell therapies for incurable diseases
22 Apr 2019
Contributed by Lukas
By last count, there are 5,000 genetic diseases in the human body. A few are merely annoying, but far more are devastating and without cure. In the la...
Michelle Monje: New therapies for brain cancer
22 Apr 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Brain cancers are known to be elusive and clever killers, but Michelle Monje, associate professor of neurology and neurological sciences, is helping t...
Dennis Wall: The changing face of autism diagnosis and treatment
03 Apr 2019
Contributed by Lukas
The current process for diagnosing autism requires no less than 10 hours of intensive doctor-to-patient observation. It is expensive and time-consumin...