Read like a frosh.
Since 2004, the Three Books program has sent all incoming first-year undergraduate and transfer students three books (or other media) to survey over the summer and then discuss at New Student Orientation. This year, the program got a light makeover. The 2023 selections have been incorporated into the syllabus of each COLLEGE course—Stanford’s core curriculum for first-year students—and spread across the year. But that doesn’t mean alums can’t still follow along. Up first is How to Do Nothing, by Bay Area artist and writer Jenny Odell. The book explores the ways addictive technology captures your attention and how to use your focus more meaningfully.
Power move.
Through decades of effort, California has reduced its greenhouse gas emissions to pre-1990 levels. But the state says that’s not enough. Essential to the state's ambitious goal of a carbon-neutral economy by 2045 is 100 percent carbon-free electricity. Stanford asked four experts to weigh in on how—and whether—California’s target is achievable.
The current rate of progress is rapid. Two years ago, 59 percent of California’s electricity generation came from renewable or carbon-free resources. By 2035, the state is projected to hit 90 percent. But it’s the final 10 to 20 percent that could be tough. For one thing, we’ll still need some conventional generators to be the occasional backup for renewables, which will require us to offset their emissions. But the experts agreed that the economic means, natural resources, and political will of California make it an ideal place for the ambitious effort. Said Jason Glickman, ’02, MS ’02, executive vice president for engineering, planning, and strategy at PG&E: “If you can’t do it here, where can you do it?”
Tuned in.
Photo: Erin Attkisson
First-year student Tyler Cooper dove into campus life with a smile and a song. Less than a week after arriving at Stanford, he played “The Gates” by comedic a cappella singing group Davinci’s Notebook at a CoHo open mic night while the cappuccinos (and pumpkin spice lattes) flowed.
Bad news for biodiversity.
While scientific and public interest has largely focused on species going extinct, entire genera (the plural of genus; one level up the taxonomy ladder from species) have been falling off the tree of life. Researchers from Stanford and the National Autonomous University of Mexico assessed genus-level extinction and found that over the past 500 years, 73 genera of land-dwelling vertebrates have gone extinct—a culling that, based on historical data, should have taken 18,000 years. It’s a surge the paper’s authors deem a “biological annihilation.” Whereas species of the same genus can typically fill in part of the lost species’ role in the ecosystem, when an entire genus goes extinct, it leaves a gap in biodiversity that takes tens of millions of years of evolution to fill in. It can also mean loss of would-be medical innovations that can come from studying other species, not to mention an exacerbation of the climate crisis. “Climate disruption is accelerating extinction, and extinction is interacting with the climate, because the nature of the plants, animals, and microbes on the planet is one of the big determinants of what kind of climate we have,” says study co-author Paul Ehrlich, a professor emeritus of biology. “What we’re losing are our only known living companions in the entire universe.”
We heart this.
The world that loves bespoke accessories may soon be getting bespoke organs. Mark Skylar-Scott, an assistant professor of bioengineering, is leading a project aimed at bioprinting a functioning human heart. The “moonshot” effort is possible, Skylar-Scott told Stanford News, because of recent improvements in the ability to print living tissue cell by cell. The research team will use an automated bank of bioreactors to produce the cells, and they’re building a 3D printer that will quickly and precisely create the architecture of a heart. A heart eventually will be transplanted into a pig with a severe congenital immunodeficiency to prevent rejection, but ultimately Skylar-Scott hopes hearts can be printed from the cells of patients who need it—averting the need for a lifetime of immunosuppressive drugs. “Your own heart, made out of your own cells, that is the dream,” said Skylar-Scott.
But wait, there’s more.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, ’55, who made history as the first female mayor of San Francisco and one half of the first pair of female senators from California, and who was the longest-serving U.S. senator in California’s history, died on September 29. She spoke with Stanford for a 2017 cover story.
Stanford president Richard Saller and provost Jenny Martinez have released a statement to the campus community regarding the events in Israel and Gaza, offering support and security resources to affected community members.
As the world of college athletics continues to evolve, the faculty, students, and Academic Council members serving on Stanford’s Committee on Athletics, Physical Education, and Recreation (CAPER) have released a statement reaffirming the importance of athletics to Stanford’s culture and identity, and suggesting five principles the university should follow in order to meet current challenges and support athletic competition at the highest level.
SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory is home to the most powerful X-ray laser on Earth. LCLS-II, which produces more than 1 million X-ray pulses per second, allows scientists to capture the behavior of molecules, atoms, and electrons with unprecedented detail.
Jason Buenrostro, PhD ’16, a cellular and molecular biologist at Harvard, has been awarded a 2023 MacArthur Fellowship, aka genius grant, for his work developing new methods and tools to better understand how and when genes are expressed. E. Tendayi Achiume, a visiting professor at Stanford Law School, also received a MacArthur fellowship in recognition of her work on global issues of racism and xenophobia.
Ever been asked to give a presentation—now? Graduate School of Business lecturer Matt Abrahams, ’91, author of the new book Think Faster, Talk Smarter, offers advice on speaking spontaneously.
At the first Faculty Senate meeting of the year, provost Jenny Martinez shared Stanford’s efforts to ensure compliance with the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling that upended the practice of race-conscious admissions, while considering permissible measures to help attract a broadly diverse student body.
Talofa lava! (Hello!) Thanks to the efforts of Brandy Atuatasi, ’25, and Ari Patu, ’24, Samoan is now one of 53 languages taught at Stanford.
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