Seeking a spontaneous philosophy major.

Five million possible combinations, a perfect match for every student. That’s the promise of the Marriage Pact’s matching algorithm. If you’re not familiar, the Marriage Pact (as in, let’s make a pact to be each other’s backup marriage partner) was born in a fall 2017 economics class, when Sophia Sterling-Angus, ’19, and Liam McGregor, ’20, decided to see if they could do better for their classmates than dating sites like Tinder, which offered seemingly limitless choices and yielded less-than-satisfactory results. The Marriage Pact’s matching algorithm gives students their best Stanford match based on answers to a series of compatibility questions. And because so many students participate (more than 90 percent of the Class of 2020 has tried it), those answers provide colorful, if not rigorous, data about student opinions and values.

Enter the Marriage Pact’s second annual Campus Report, which says, for example, that two-thirds of undergrad students don’t think it’s important for their kids to be raised with religion; that more men than women would take a one-way trip to space; and that the number of socialists on campus has nearly surpassed the number of Republicans, whose numbers have been declining since 2017. The juiciest stats have to do with the “easiest” majors. Spoiler alert, it looks like art practice majors really do have more fun.

I am not throwing away my shot.

Flu season is in full swing, but it’s not too late to get vaccinated. Influenza B is the most common type of flu this year, and about 58 percent of influenza B viruses are covered by this year’s vaccine, says Eric A. Weiss, emeritus professor of emergency medicine. Weiss advises getting a flu shot even if you’ve already had the flu this year, and even if you’ve currently got a mild cold. If you’re more than slightly sick, wait until you’re better or consult with your doctor before getting vaccinated. PS, if you’re worried about coronavirus, clinical assistant professor of medicine Seema Yasmin has a Wired video with everything you need to know.

For Iowans only.

The results of Stanford’s first Iowa satellite caucus, which drew onlookers last Monday, were sent off without a glitch, reports the Mercury News, even as caucuses in Iowa suffered systemswide issues in reporting. “The results, ultimately, will be clear and undisputed because, amid everything they did wrong, the Iowa Democratic Party did one thing right: It required that votes be counted on paper, and then tallied electronically,” writes Herbert Lin, senior research scholar at the Center for International Security and Cooperation, in the Conversation. Stanford sends two delegates to the county-level conventions for Sanders, two for Warren, and one for Klobuchar.

Photo credit: Don Feria

When nap attacks strike. 

Before they go into hibernation, ground squirrels spend most of their days eating food and accumulating body fat. Then their body temperatures drop and they enter a state of torpor. Sound like your winter so far? Turns out the hibernation habits of squirrels could offer insights into human physiology. Researchers have found that genetics govern when individual ground squirrels go into hibernation. They’ve also identified the genetic variants likely responsible; squirrels with mutations in two genes went into hibernation later in the year than squirrels without the mutations.

Understanding the role those genes—which the rodents share with humans—play in squirrel physiology could one day be used to help people lose weight, recover from heart attacks or strokes, or maintain muscle mass during prolonged periods of bed rest, researcher Katharine Grabek told SCOPE blog. In the meantime, if you’re in flannel pj’s by 8 p.m., you have our permission to blame genetics.

Your body’s not a temple, more like a used car.

Why take it easy, get more sleep and manage your stress when there’s so much living to do and only one short life to do it in? “How many—and you’ll only need one guess—of those people who told me to slow down and be careful, moved to the other side of the world and became Navy SEALs, butt models and Stanford students?” writes junior Nestor Walters in the Stanford Daily. “How many have jet-booted around the bottom of tropical oceans, stood on jujitsu podiums with sweat and chafing and strained neck muscles, or felt the sky rush past them at 130 mph while wearing American-flag Speedos?” Only one, Nestor. Only one. Our bodies aren’t temples, Walters says, they’re borrowed vehicles, and no one checks their condition when you turn them in. “So drive it like you stole it.”

But wait, there’s more.

Former U.S. Secretary of State and Stanford provost Condoleezza Rice, a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution and the Denning Professor in Global Business at the Graduate School of Business, will be the Hoover Institution’s next director.

Doggo, everyone’s favorite open-source 4-legged robot, has two new siblings designed by the Stanford Robotics Club, reports TechCrunch. Pupper is a smaller, more accessible model that costs less than $500 to build. Woofer is a bigger boy, at an earlier stage of development. Good dogs!

“Basically, if you believe that a white man rules the heavens, you are more likely to believe that white men should rule on Earth,” Steven Roberts, assistant professor of psychology, told Stanford News Service. Roberts led research that tested people’s perceptions of God and leaders and found that how U.S. Christians visualize God predicts what they think a boss looks like.

Folks in Silicon Valley are dopamine fasting to cure their tech addictions, as one does. But neuroscientists including psychology professor Russell Poldrack say the problem isn’t dopamine.

A tiny but historic cohort of African American students entered Stanford on the vanguard of the civil rights movement. This is how it felt. For more stories celebrating Stanford's black students, alumni and faculty, check out Stanfordmag.org’s Black History Month collection.

Why do some people hate vegans so much? Maybe it’s because they’re afraid of being judged.

A recently digitized audio recording of a Rosa Parks press conference at Arroyo House in 1990 is now accessible through Stanford Libraries.

Summer Moore Batte, ’99, is the editor of Stanfordmag.org. Email her at summerm@stanford.edu.

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