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Articles by Tom Abate
Can Prop. 1 Address California’s Trifecta of Mental Health Crises? Voters Are About to Decide
Mental health experts weigh in on measure to make sweeping changes in mental health, housing and addiction services On March 5, California voters will decide the future of a tax that millionaires pay to help fund state mental health programs. Since 2004, when voters approved the Mental Health Services Act (MHSA), the tax it created has poured a total of $31 billion into the state’s poorly funded mental health system.
Opinion: Alameda County mental health funding ‘shooting in the dark’
The 20 people who voiced frustrations in a recent Zoom meeting represented a fraction of the membership of Alameda County FASMI — Families Advocating for the Seriously Mentally Ill. “Everybody here has skin in the game,” said Katy Polony, co-founder of this group whose members have firsthand or secondhand experience with serious mental illness. An Alameda County Civil Grand Jury report issued last year validated their complaints.
These microrobots imitate starfish larva and could help treat tumors
Microrobots, often only a fraction of a diameter of a hair, are predicted to revolutionize healthcare. They are made to swim through the body to deliver medication to specific areas and perform the smallest surgical procedures. A microrobot has recently been developed that mimics a starfish larva, where hundreds and thousands of hairs can be used to create a vortex and also collect particles. Researchers have developed a tiny robot that mimics the movement of a starfish larva.
Can Stanford University help solve the global semiconductor crisis?
Found in virtually every gadget powered by batteries or electricity, so ubiquitous as to be taken for granted, is that bedrock of our technological era, the semiconductor chip. But last year, when automotive assembly lines stalled for lack of chips to build everything from anti-lock brakes to automatic door locks, public officials began to recognize the crisis that research and industrial scientists had seen coming.
Stanford opens a ‘smart city’ research center in Korea
Stanford University this week established the Stanford Center at the Incheon Global Campus, a research center in the “smart city” of Songdo, a 1,500-acre business district nestled within the South Korean city of Incheon, a trade and transportation hub close to the nation’s major international airport. Stanford researchers will develop futuristic, urban technologies at a new research center in Songdo, a “smart city” in Korea.
To make particles flow more efficiently, put an obstacle in their way
Tang’s lab showed how it was possible to make microfluidic experiments far more efficient. Credit: Unsplash/Yingchih Scientists used to perform experiments by stirring biological and chemical agents into test tubes. Nowadays, they automate research by using microfluidic chips the size of postage stamps. In these tiny devices, millions of microscopic particles are captured in droplets of water, each droplet serving as the "test tube" for a single experiment.
To make particles flow more efficiently, put an obstacle in their way
Scientists used to perform experiments by stirring biological and chemical agents into test tubes. Nowadays, they automate research by using microfluidic chips the size of postage stamps. In these tiny devices, millions of microscopic particles are captured in droplets of water, each droplet serving as the “test tube” for a single experiment.
New initiative aims to keep 5G networks reliable and secure
Later this year, in a lab in the Durand Building at Stanford University School of Engineering, a team of researchers will demonstrate how a tight formation of computer-controlled drones can be managed with precision even when the 5G network controlling it is under continual cyberattack. The demo’s ultimate success or failure will depend on the ability of an experimental network control technology to detect the hacks and defeat them within a second to safeguard the navigation systems.
The H-bomb ‘secret’: Looking back 42 years later
Daily Cal 150 Saturday, March 20, 2021 The H-bomb ‘secret’: Looking back 42 years later By Tom Abate | Special to the Daily Cal Last Updated 1 min Ago In 1979, The Daily Californian published two stories that blew open a national debate over whether Americans could face criminal charges for publishing the basic principles behind the hydrogen bomb.
Rapid-response technology could produce billions of vaccine doses fast enough to stop the next pandemic
James Swartz operating a bioreactor that his lab uses to grow cells from which cell extracts used for CFPS are prepared. Credit: Andrew Brodhead Ever since the COVID-19 pandemic began more than a year ago, public health officials, scientists and policy leaders have struggled to contain the viral contagion that has claimed more than 2.4 million lives worldwide and caused global economic upheaval.
A rapid-response vaccine could stop pandemics
Ever since the COVID-19 pandemic began more than a year ago, public health officials, scientists and policy leaders have struggled to contain the viral contagion that has claimed more than 2.4 million lives worldwide and caused global economic upheaval. James Swartz has spent more than a dozen years working on away to mass-produce billions of doses of vaccine fast enough to stop a pandemic-causing virus before it could spread.
Stanford faculty elected to National Academy of Engineering
February 16, 2021 Stanford School of Engineering faculty members Anne Kiremidjian and Kunle Olukotun and School of Medicine faculty member Joshua Makower have been elected to the National Academy of Engineering, which is one of the highest professional distinctions accorded engineers.
Injectable nanoparticle gels release medicines over time
Feb 16, 2021 (Nanowerk News) Gels are formed by mixing polymers into fluids to create gooey substances useful for everything from holding hair in place to enabling contact lenses to float over the eye. Researchers want to develop gels for healthcare applications by mixing in medicinal compounds, and giving patients injections so that the gel releases the active pharmaceutical ingredient over a period of months to avoid weekly or daily needle sticks.
John Hennessy honored for innovation, teaching in CPU design
John Hennessy, Stanford president emeritus and the James F.
Proof of concept: Injectable gels releasing medicines over time
Proof of concept: Injectable gels releasing medicines over time - By Tom Abate , Stanford University - Injecting patients with a gel that would dissolve over several months could replace the need to administer daily or weekly shots. But to make this possible, researchers first had to create a Jello-like substance that could defy one of the fundamental laws of nature.
Injectable gels could release medicines over time
Gels are formed by mixing polymers into fluids to create gooey substances useful for everything from holding hair in place to enabling contact lenses to float over the eye. Stanford researchers are developing medicinal gels that could be injected into the body in order to release drugs over a period of months, replacing the need for daily or weekly shots.
Hybrid chips can run AI on battery-powered devices
Smartwatches and other battery-powered electronics would be even smarter if they could run AI algorithms. But efforts to build AI-capable chips for mobile devices have so far hit a wall – the so-called “memory wall” that separates data processing and memory chips that must work together to meet the massive and continually growing computational demands imposed by AI. Hardware and software innovations give eight chips the illusion that they’re one mega-chip working together to run AI.
Research team creates a computer model that can predict how COVID-19 spreads in cities
A new computer model predicts the COVID-19 infection-versus-activity trade-off for Chicago. According to the figure, COVID-19 infections will rise as the number of visits to businesses and public places approach pre-pandemic levels. However, restricting maximum occupancy can strike an effective balance: for example, a 20 percent occupancy cap would still permit 60 percent of pre-pandemic visits while risking only 18 percent of the infections that would occur if public places were to fully reopen.
Two engineers design and donate a technique to make N95 masks reusable
In the spring of 2020, as the pandemic created a worldwide shortage of N95 masks, two Stanford engineers working out of their homes designed and demonstrated an effective yet inexpensive way to disinfect personal protective equipment (PPE). In two papers recently published in the journal Applied Optics, they described how they used ultraviolet light (UV) to deactivate a bacterium that is accepted as a proxy for the dangerous-to-handle virus that causes COVID-19.
A new technique predicts how quakes would affect a city’s hospitals
19 October 2020 Source(s) By Tom Abate In an increasingly urbanized world, population density often leads to more deaths and injuries when floods, typhoons, landslides and other disasters strike cities. But the risks to life and limb are compounded when earthquakes are the agent of destruction, because they not only kill and maim but also can cripple the hospitals needed to treat survivors.
AI-controlled sensors could save lives in ‘smart’ hospitals and homes
As many as 400,000 Americans die each year because of medical errors, but many of these deaths could be prevented by using electronic sensors and artificial intelligence to help medical professionals monitor and treat vulnerable patients in ways that improve outcomes while respecting privacy.
Scientists turn yeast cells into drug factories
Credit: Jennifer Cook-Chrysos. Stanford engineers have genetically reprogrammed the cellular machinery of yeast to create microscopic factories that convert sugars and amino acids into plant-based drugs. Since antiquity, cultures on nearly every continent have discovered that certain plant leaves, when chewed or brewed or rubbed on the body, could relieve diverse ailments, inspire hallucinations or, in higher dosages, even cause death.
Scientists turn yeast cells into drug factories
Since antiquity, cultures on nearly every continent have discovered that certain plant leaves, when chewed or brewed or rubbed on the body, could relieve diverse ailments, inspire hallucinations or, in higher dosages, even cause death.
How the Computer Science Department is teaching ethics to its students
Mehran Sahami sees ethics through the lens of a professor who helps future engineers develop a sophisticated understanding of the subtle ways in which computer code can influence the law and other governmental, economic and cultural systems that organize an increasingly computerized society.
How thoughts could one day control electronic prostheses, wirelessly
Photo of a current neural implant, that uses wires to transmit information and receive power. Credit: Sergey Stavisky. Today’s brain implants already connect the nervous system to electronic devices to help people with spinal cord injuries regain some motor control. But they use ungainly wires.
How thoughts could one day control electronic prostheses, wirelessly
A current neural implant that uses wires to transmit information and receive power. Credit: Sergey Stavisky Stanford researchers have been working for years to advance a technology that could one day help people with paralysis regain use of their limbs, and enable amputees to use their thoughts to control prostheses and interact with computers. The team has been focusing on improving a brain-computer interface, a device implanted beneath the skull on the surface of a patient's brain.
How thoughts could one day control electronic prostheses, wirelessly
Stanford researchers have been working for years to advance a technology that could one day help people with paralysis regain use of their limbs, and enable amputees to use their thoughts to control prostheses and interact with computers. The team has been focusing on improving a brain-computer interface, a device implanted beneath the skull on the surface of a patient's brain.
Team shows how to store data using 2-D materials instead of silicon chips
This illustrates how an experimental memory technology stores data by shifting the relative position of three atomically thin layers of metal, depicted as gold balls. The swirling colors reveal how a shift in the middle layer affects the motion of electrons in a way that encodes digital ones and zeroes.
Scientists engineer one protein to fight cancer and regenerate neurons
Credit: CC0 Public Domain Our lungs, bones, blood vessels and other major organs are made up of cells, and one way our bodies keep us healthy is by using protein messengers known as ligands that bind to receptors on the surfaces of cells to regulate our biological processes. When those messages get garbled, it can make us ill with a host of different diseases.
Stanford researchers show how decisions light up the brain
When we make even simple decisions about how to interact with the world, we rely on computations performed by networks of neurons that span our brains. But what exactly are these neural networks computing? Answering this question requires measuring the activity of lots of neurons throughout the brain as an animal makes a decision.
A new optical system shows how decisions light up the brain
When we make even simple decisions about how to interact with the world, we rely on computations performed by networks of neurons that span our brains. But what exactly are these neural networks computing? Answering this question requires measuring the activity of lots of neurons throughout the brain as an animal makes a decision.
What if we could design powerful drugs without unwanted side effects?
Credit: CC0 Public Domain Psychedelics such as LSD and magic mushrooms have proven highly effective in treating depression and post-traumatic stress disorders, but medical use of these drugs is limited by the hallucinations they cause. "What if we could redesign drugs to keep their benefits while eliminating their unwanted side effects?" asks Ron Dror, an associate professor of computer science at Stanford. Dror's lab is developing computer simulations to help researchers do just that.
What if we could design powerful drugs without unwanted side effects?
Psychedelics such as LSD and magic mushrooms have proven highly effective in treating depression and post-traumatic stress disorders, but medical use of these drugs is limited by the hallucinations they cause. "What if we could redesign drugs to keep their benefits while eliminating their unwanted side effects?" asks Ron Dror, an associate professor of computer science at Stanford. Dror's lab is developing computer simulations to help researchers do just that.
A 'veil of darkness' reduces racial bias in traffic stops
As further evidence of bias in traffic stops, Stanford researchers find that while blacks tend to get pulled over more frequently than whites, the disparity lessens at night, when a “veil of darkness” hides their face. Credit: Simba Munemo, Upsplash The largest-ever study of alleged racial profiling during traffic stops has found that blacks, who are pulled over more frequently than whites by day, are much less likely to be stopped after sunset, when "a veil of darkness" masks their race.
A ‘veil of darkness’ reduces racial bias in traffic stops
The largest-ever study of alleged racial profiling during traffic stops has found that blacks, who are pulled over more frequently than whites by day, are much less likely to be stopped after sunset, when “a veil of darkness” masks their race. That is one of several examples of systematic bias that emerged from a five-year study that analyzed 95 million traffic stop records, filed by officers with 21 state patrol agencies and 35 municipal police forces from 2011 to 2018.
Andrea Goldsmith first woman to win the Marconi Prize
April 30, 2020 The Stanford professor and inventor has been awarded the top honor in information and communications research, and has gifted back her $100,000 honorarium to start an endowment to fund technology and diversity initiatives.
Study points toward a more holistic way to measure the economic fallout from earthquakes
Chart A. A study published in Nature Sustainability found that after a hypothetical 7.2 magnitude earthquake in the San Francisco Bay Area, people who were lower down on the income scale before the quake suffered more economically during the recovery. The bars in this chart show the relative loss of well-being for people in each of four income groups, as calculated by the researchers.
A more holistic way to measure economic fallout from earthquakes
When an earthquake or other natural disaster strikes, government relief agencies, insurers and other responders converge to take stock of fatalities and injuries, and to assess the extent and cost of damage to public infrastructure and personal property. Stanford researchers have developed a way to quantify the economic toll that a major earthquake is likely to exact, and their analysis shows that such a disaster will likely hit hardest at the poor.
Inexpensive lidar could help bring self-driving cars to market
Inexpensive lidar technology could help make self-driving cars more common. Source: Andrzej Wojcicki, Stanford/Science One of the biggest obstacles to the commercialization of autonomous vehicles is the cost of sensors. Self-driving cars need multiple cameras and lidar sensors to navigate and avoid obstacles including pedestrians. Developers have spent years waiting for inexpensive lidar systems.
Could shrinking a key component help make autonomous cars affordable?
A new chip-based navigation technology could make autonomous cars economically viable.
Andrea Goldsmith named dean of engineering at Princeton University
After 21 years as a professor of electrical engineering at Stanford, Andrea Goldsmith has been named dean of Princeton University’s School of Engineering and Applied Science, effective September 1.
Crowdsourcing site collects county-level policy data to inform decisions about easing social-distancing
Visit SocialDistancing.Stanford.edu to provide information about local shelter-in-place policies to help government officials decide when it will be safe to ease such restrictions.
Stanford crowdsources county-level COVID-19 policy data
Americans nationwide now have a chance to help government officials decide when to ease social-distancing policies by completing a survey on a new website that compiles information about if and when their counties implemented local shelter-in-place measures to slow the spread of COVID-19. Visit SocialDistancing.Stanford.edu to provide information about local shelter-in-place policies to help government officials decide when it will be safe to ease such restrictions.
Stanford researchers help develop privacy-focused coronavirus alert app
In late January, Tina White should have been finishing her dissertation, but instead, she found herself lying awake at night, feeling helpless that the COVID-19 outbreak in China might spread worldwide. Her anxiety increased as authorities in China and elsewhere began using cell phone data to track the movements of people infected with the disease. Tina White, photographed as she shelters in place.
Stanford researchers help develop privacy-focused coronavirus alert app
Tina White, photographed as she shelters in place. Credit: Andrew Brodhead In late January, Tina White should have been finishing her dissertation, but instead, she found herself lying awake at night, feeling helpless that the COVID-19 outbreak in China might spread worldwide. Her anxiety increased as authorities in China and elsewhere began using cell phone data to track the movements of people infected with the disease.
Stanford-led team develops privacy-focused coronavirus alert app
In late January, Tina White should have been finishing her dissertation, but instead, she found herself lying awake at night, feeling helpless that the COVID-19 outbreak in China might spread worldwide. Her anxiety increased as authorities in China and elsewhere began using cell phone data to track the movements of people infected with the disease.
Website explains how hospitals can decontaminate and reuse N95 masks to fight COVID-19
Stanford researchers helped lead the nationwide scientific team behind N95decon.org, a website that synthesizes the scientific literature regarding how to decontaminate and reuse this scarce, protective face gear to battle COVID-19.
Researchers show how to decontaminate N95 masks
April 1, 2020 Researchers from Stanford and other universities scoured the scientific literature to create N95decon.org, a web portal that medical professionals can access for trustworthy information on how to decontaminate used N95 masks.
Cells carry out gene-guided construction projects
Stanford researchers have developed a technique that reprograms cells to use synthetic materials, provided by the scientists, to build artificial structures able to carry out functions inside the body. Stanford scientists have developed a technology involving biocompatible polymers (shown in gold), that can be electrically insulating or conductive. When selectively deposited on cells, like the neurons shown here, they modulate the properties of target cells.
Stanford scientists program cells to carry out gene-guided construction projects
IMAGE: The golden color illustrates the deposition of biocompatible polymers on two genetically targeted neurons at right, sparing neighboring cells. The selective deposition of these polymers, which can be electrically insulating...
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