What is love (without oxytocin)?
Apparently, it’s still love. In a study 15 years in the making, the hormone long considered essential in mammalian pair bonding and good parenting was put to the ultimate test, and things went . . . heart-shaped. To uncover the connection between oxytocin and prosocial behavior, researchers at Stanford Medicine and two other institutions have been studying the animal kingdom’s poster children for monogamous, doting parenthood: prairie voles. They bond for life, huddle together to keep pups warm, and work diligently to keep offspring out of harm’s way. But when the precise molecular editing capabilities of CRISPR were used to delete the gene for the voles’ oxytocin receptor, they found that the voles still bonded fiercely and co-parented conscientiously. In fact, not a single result from the study indicated a critical role for the “love hormone” in prosocial behavior. “As you can imagine, this is huge,” said Nirao Shah, a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences and of neurobiology. Many possible explanations remain—perhaps brain circuitry compensated for the missing receptor, or another hormone, like vasopressin, has been responsible all along. Until follow-up research can be done, the chemistry of love remains a mystery.
But take heart—some aspects of love can be answered by academia. When it comes to love and money, for example, labor economist and professor emerita of education Myra Strober says the data is clear: They do and should mix. On an episode of Stanford GSB’s Think Fast, Talk Smart podcast, Strober and social innovation leader Abby Davisson, MA ’08, MBA ’08, share research-based recommendations for navigating the complexities of the nuclear family dynamic—for those times when you want your S.O. to see you as preferable to a rodent.
How to bounce back from a layoff.
As the tech industry sheds jobs, alum experts share their advice for workers facing job instability. Emily Caruthers, ’02, MA ’04, leads executive recruiting for Amazon global media and entertainment; Stephanie Tan, ’94, MS ’94, runs a boutique talent advisory and search firm; and Ryan Renteria, ’01, founded a C-suite executive coaching company. Their pre- and post-layoff suggestions range from polishing your cover letter (yes, they still read those) to contemplating new career paths that suit your skills. If the unfortunate comes to pass, though, allow yourself time to grieve. “You need to take a few days to get over the identity shock,” Renteria said. Even taking a few days to process what happened can help bolster your confidence before you launch your job search.
Big birds.
Photo: Herschell Taghap
If you’re nostalgic for the days when biodiversity darkened the skies with flocks of passenger pigeons and dotted the landscape with heath hens, you and sculptor Todd McGrain are birds of a feather. Moved by the stories of five extinct North American birds, McGrain created a large bronze sculpture of each (including the Carolina parakeet, shown above) and searched the country for the places where the birds were last seen, negotiating permission to install his art there. The sculptures have now migrated to the Stanford campus, where The Lost Bird Project, a documentary, will be screened soon. And you can listen to the film’s soundtrack, The Lost Birds, which scored composer Christopher Tin, ’98, MA ’99, a Classical Compendium Grammy nomination this year. (Tin was nominated in a second category, too, for his Old World video game soundtrack.)
Support after a disaster.
In the aftermath of the 7.8-magnitude earthquake that struck Turkey and Syria on February 6, campus groups have worked to raise awareness and rally support for the victims and survivors, as well as for students, staff, and faculty with ties to the area. A support group was organized by the Markaz Resource Center, which supports students who identify with or are interested in Muslim experiences. Other groups, including the Turkish Students Association and the Arab Student Association, are raising awareness and funds for relief efforts in Turkey and Syria.
Why are some large earthquakes more destructive than others? In addition to factors like the location of the epicenter and the type of soil in the area, professor of geophysics William Ellsworth, ’70, MS ’71, points to the built environment, particularly the importance of retrofitting old buildings to meet modern codes. “Turkey has very good earthquake codes,” he told the Los Angeles Times. “In many ways, they’re as strong as those that we have in California. But if buildings weren’t built to modern codes, they’re vulnerable.”
Three cheers for take-home tests.
Loose, unpackaged potatoes. Live bees. Snow. Of all the things you can legally mail, this one really gets our hearts pumping: blood. Professor of genetics Michael Snyder and his colleagues have honed multi-omic microsampling, a new technique that could soon allow you to take a blood test on your couch and mail that puppy in. The test requires a mere 10-microliter drop of blood collected via finger stick (teeny in comparison to the 10 to 50 milliliters needed for a traditional intravenous draw). If this sounds, um, similar to a certain single-drop shop made infamous by a court case and Hulu miniseries, note the important differences: Snyder’s data analysis is performed in a lab and utilizes mass spectrometry—which sorts molecules based on their mass and electronic charge—rather than existing diagnostic methods. Clinicians can measure thousands of molecules, analyzing a vast array of proteins, fats, byproducts of metabolism, and inflammatory markers. Another benefit: sparing patients from clinic visits. Parking, ugh. But also, health care settings notoriously stress patients, sending heart rates and blood pressure soaring. “You’re better off doing as much of this as possible from home,” Snyder said.
Pilot study results were similar to those of traditional blood draws for the vast majority of molecules, paving the way for a future in which patients test their blood more regularly and potentially aiding in early detection and diagnosis of disease. “The bottom line,” Snyder said, “is that we can get a really deep profile of a person’s metabolic and immune health, all through the convenience of a home test.”
But wait, there’s more.
Following concerns about a Stanford IT language initiative and a perceived threat to academic freedom on campus and nationwide, Stanford’s Faculty Senate has voted to establish an ad hoc committee on university speech to assess whether there are constraints on academic freedom and speech, to share its findings with the university, and to recommend changes, if necessary, as to how the senate conducts oversight of the issue.
Researchers have found that the IRS audits Black taxpayers 2.9 to 4.7 times more often than non-Black taxpayers. The disparity is likely not intentional, researchers said, as tax returns do not ask for racial or ethnic identity. They recommended that the agency examine the secret algorithm in question to reduce its racially disparate impact.
David Harris, ’67, who became a national figure for encouraging draft resistance during the Vietnam War, died on February 6. He was married to singer Joan Baez when he went to jail for refusing to serve in the military, and he later became a journalist.
Can an alma mater be a proud parent? Four Stanford alums—Joaquin Castro, ’96, Dan Goldman, JD ’05, Josh Harder, ’08, and Mike Levin, ’01—are among the 13 founding members of the Congressional Dads Caucus, which aims to increase advocacy on issues affecting working parents. Castro told NPR that men have a role to play in supporting policies that help working families. Women legislators, he said, “deserve an extraordinary amount of credit, but they should also be able to count on male legislators to be partners in their fight from the beginning.”
Law professor Ralph Richard Banks, ’87, MA ’87, co-founder and faculty director of the Stanford Center for Racial Justice, comments on the controversy in Florida over a new AP African American studies course and the importance of considering all opinions to get away from no-win culture wars. “This is not a debate about what’s true versus what’s false. It’s a debate about the ways in which teachings of history can create narratives about society,” he told the Legal Aggregate blog.
We hope the New York Youth Symphony has space for a new trophy. The musicians, led by director and conductor Michael Repper, ’12, MA ’12, won a Grammy Award this month for best orchestral performance—the first youth symphony to do so. Their album features four works by three Black female composers and was recorded in shifts of small groups during the pre-vaccine era of the pandemic.
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