In the decades following the work by physiologist Ivan Pavlov and his famous salivating dogs, scientists have discovered how molecules and cells in the brain learn to associate stimuli, like Pavlov’s bell and the resulting food. What they haven’t been able to study is how whole groups of neurons work together to form that association. Now, Stanford University researchers have observed how large groups of neurons in the brain both lear...

Elementary and secondary school students who later want to become scientists and engineers often get hands-on inspiration by using off-the-shelf kits to build and program robots. But so far it’s been difficult to create robotic projects to foster interest in the “wet” sciences – biology, chemistry and medicine – so called because experiments in these field often involve fluids.

The brain is soft and electronics are stiff, which can make combining the two challenging, such as when neuroscientists implant electrodes to measure brain activity and perhaps deliver tiny jolts of electricity for pain relief or other purposes. A robotic test instrument stretches over a curved surface a nearly transparent, flexible electrode based on a special plastic developed in the lab of Stanford chemical engineer Zhenan Bao.

For all the improvements in computer technology over the years, we still struggle to recreate the low-energy, elegant processing of the human brain. Now, researchers at Stanford University and Sandia National Laboratories have made an advance that could help computers mimic one piece of the brain’s efficient design – an artificial version of the space over which neurons communicate, called a synapse.

A clinical research publication led by Stanford University investigators has demonstrated that a brain-to-computer hookup can enable people with paralysis to type via direct brain control at the highest speeds and accuracy levels reported to date. The report involved three study participants with severe limb weakness—two from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also called Lou Gehrig's disease, and one from a spinal cord injury.

Trace amounts of uranium exist in seawater, but efforts to extract that critical ingredient for nuclear power have produced insufficient quantities to make it a viable source for those countries that lack uranium mines. A practical method for extracting that uranium, which produces higher quantities in less time, could help make nuclear power a viable part of the quest for a carbon-free energy future.

  Some technologies can be tuned to our personal characteristics, like the voice recognition on smartphones trained to recognise how we speak. But that isn’t possible with today’s virtual reality headsets. They can’t account for differences in vision, which can make watching VR less enjoyable or even cause headaches or nausea.

If a piece of electronics isn’t working, troubleshooting the problem often involves probing the flow of electricity through the various components of the circuit to locate any faulty parts. Stanford bioengineer and neuroscientist Jin Hyung Lee, who studies Parkinson’s disease, has adapted that idea to diseases of the brain, creating a new way to turn on specific types of neurons in order to observe how this affects the whole brai...

Universal access to health care was on the minds of computer scientists at Stanford when they set out to create an artificially intelligent diagnosis algorithm for skin cancer. They made a database of nearly 130,000 skin disease images and trained their algorithm to visually diagnose potential cancer. From the very first test, it performed with inspiring accuracy.

  2016 was an explosive year for Samsung as it was forced to recall its Samsung Galaxy Note 7 smartphones following repeated cases of models catching on fire. While the energy densities of batteries continues to increase, the question of safety remains a big issue.

Here’s how to build a whirligig: Thread a loop of twine through two holes in a button. Grab the loop ends, then rhythmically pull. As the twine coils and uncoils, the button spins at a dizzying speed. Inspired by a toy, Stanford bioengineers have developed an inexpensive, human-powered blood centrifuge that will enable precise diagnosis and treatment of diseases like malaria, African sleeping sickness and tuberculosis in the poor, off-...

People are born with brains riddled with excess neural connections. Those are slowly pruned back until early childhood when, scientists thought, the brain’s structure becomes relatively stable. Now a pair of studies, published in the issues of Science and in Cerebral Cortex, suggest this process is more complicated than previously thought. For the first time, the group found microscopic tissue growth in the brain continues in regions t...

  Scientists at Stanford University and the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory have discovered a way to use diamondoids – the smallest possible bits of diamond – to assemble atoms into the thinnest possible electrical wires, just three atoms wide.

Millimetre-long worms digesting a nanoparticle-laced meal of their favorite bacteria could eventually lead to a new way to see cellular forces at play within our own bodies, including processes like wound healing and cancer growth. The key is that these particular nanoparticles glow when struck by a near-infrared laser and change colour depending on the pressure around them. So, they can give off real-time information about the forces they&r...

Scientists have spent decades searching for a safe alternative to the flammable liquid electrolytes used in lithium-ion batteries. Now Stanford University researchers have identified nearly two-dozen solid electrolytes that could someday replace the volatile liquids used in smartphones, laptops and other electronic devices. The results, based on techniques adapted from AI and machine learning, are published in the journal Energy & Enviro...

There you are, cruising down the motorway, listening to some tunes and enjoying the view as your autonomous car zips and swerves through traffic. Then the fun ends and it becomes time take over the wheel. How smooth is that transition going to be? Twenty-two drivers put that question to a test—on a track, not a motorway—to find out. 

Scientists often discover interesting things without completely understanding how they work. That has been the case with an experimental memory technology in which temperature and voltage work together to create the conditions for data storage. But precisely how was unknown. But when a Stanford team found a way to untangle the chip’s energy and heat requirements, their tentative findings revealed a pleasant surprise: The process may be...

Writing in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a team led by Eric Appel, an assistant professor of materials science at Stanford, and doctoral candidate Anthony Yu describe how to make a generation of hydrogels based on abundant natural materials. The hydrogels incorporate two abundant and inexpensive basic ingredients. One is a cellulose polymer derived from natural sources such as wood chips and agricultural waste.

A team led by Stanford electrical engineering Associate Professor Eric Pop has demonstrated how it might be possible to mass-produce atomically thin materials and electronics. Why would this be useful? Because such thin materials would be transparent and flexible as well, in ways that would enable electronic devices that wouldn’t be possible to make with silicon.

A nanosize squeeze can significantly boost the performance of platinum catalysts that help generate energy in fuel cells, according to a new study by Stanford scientists. The team bonded a platinum catalyst to a thin material that expands and contracts as electrons move in and out, and found that squeezing the platinum a fraction of a nanometer nearly doubled its catalytic activity. The findings are published in the journal Science.