It’s what’s on the inside that matters.
Prepare yourself—weird science ahead. It appears the food dye Yellow 5 is good for more than just Twinkies and Mountain Dew. After massaging a solution of Yellow 5 (also called red tartrazine) onto a mouse’s abdomen, leg, and head, researchers were able to see through the rodent’s skin as if it were glass, observing with the naked eye blood flow, muscle fibers, and the functioning of internal organs such as the liver and small intestine. Undyed skin scatters light, which is why we can’t see through it. But the light-absorbing molecules in Yellow 5 allow a deeper look. When rinsed with water, the skin returned to normal.
Before you start wondering what New York Fashion Week will be like with transparent midriffs, know that human skin is 10 times thicker than that of mice. But if the technique can be made to work on humans, it could, for example, replace some X-rays and CT scans. “If we could just look at what’s going on under the skin instead of cutting into it, or using radiation to get a less-than-clear look, we could change the way we see the human body,” said Guosong Hong, PhD ’14, assistant professor of materials science and engineering, and senior author on the paper.
Course hero.
At age 9, Rose Zhang, ’25, took her first golf swings. She would eventually spend a record 141 weeks as the No. 1 amateur in the world and break Stanford’s record for tournament titles (previously held by Tiger Woods, ’98). Upon going pro in 2023, she won two LPGA tournaments. But she didn’t hand in her student ID. You can still catch her on campus, rushing to class or grinding out p-sets in the library. Part of her success lies in her commitment to a life off the course. Beyond the golf trophies, “I wanted something more. I wanted to figure out what that was,” she told Stanford magazine.
A fantastic Farm welcome.
More than 4,500 new frosh and transfer, graduate, and professional students landed on campus last week. In his first convocation address, university president Jonathan Levin, ’94, encouraged students to explore life’s big questions, appreciate the limits of one’s knowledge, fall in love with the campus, and approach their Stanford journey with curiosity. “One of our collective challenges is to create an environment where each of us, with so many different passions and views, can thrive,” he said.
Move-in day 1953 was a bit different.
Janice Luebbermann Wilson, ’57, sent Stanford magazine an envelope filled with coupons and raffle tickets from her frosh welcome packet—which she’d held on to since 1953. It’s a time capsule in a manila envelope (59-cent nylon hose, ladies?) showcasing the offerings on and around University Avenue way back when. What do you remember from the day you arrived on the Farm? Email the Loop and we’ll report back.
What’s behind science skepticism.
Stanford research shows that the more exposure people have to religions other than their own, the less likely they are to be skeptical of science. Yu Ding, an assistant professor of marketing at Stanford Graduate School of Business, found that religiosity alone does not predict science denial. He and his co-researchers hypothesized that science denial may arise from an unwillingness to accept any view that contradicts one’s own. “If you live in an echo chamber of your own beliefs, you may not be willing to go through the whole process of understanding when judging other beliefs. It’s easier to simply reject the contradictory ones,” Ding said. Across seven studies, they found that countries with higher levels of religious diversity had lower levels of science denial—and vice versa. And in surveying Christians in the United States, Muslims in Pakistan, and Hindus in India, they found that people who were more intolerant of other religions also held negative views about science.
The future of creative writing at Stanford.
Stanford is implementing significant changes to its creative writing program, the home of the prestigious Stegner Fellowship and the most popular minor among undergraduates—which has experienced unprecedented growth in recent years. The university will reinstate four-year term limits for all Jones Lecturers—former Stegner Fellows who are hired to stay beyond their two-year fellowship, teaching classes and, often, finishing their own books. Despite consternation from students and current Jones Lecturers, who have been in their positions between one and 20 years, program administrators say the change (which follows a 2019 move to limit newly hired Jones lecturers to four years) ensures that new Stegner Fellows can become Jones lecturers and keeps a flow of fresh perspectives within the program. Next year, the program will increase its annual course offerings by 10 percent, to approximately 110. Additionally, two new lectureships will be available to outgoing Jones lecturers, and an associate director of creative writing will be hired to teach as well as provide leadership support to faculty and lecturers.
But wait, there’s more.
This Friday at 4 p.m. PDT, you can catch the inauguration and investiture of Jonathan Levin as Stanford’s 13th president. The event will be held at Frost Amphitheater and broadcast via livestream.
Meet competitive jigsaw puzzler Becca Taylor, a Stanford staff member who discovered puzzle competition in 2022 and is headed to the World Jigsaw Puzzle Championship, in Spain, this month. (You can watch her awesome display of Nerdom here.)
The Cardinal won its first ACC football game of the season by the skin of . . . we guess an orange peel? Who even are these ACC mascots? Stanford magazine breaks them down, from the most perplexing to most likely to die in cold weather.
The human body declines faster in space, and while that’s not great news for astronauts, it is helping researchers study age-related ailments—such as muscle loss—on much shorter timelines.
From the New York Giants to the Minnesota Vikings, here are 29 previous Stanford football players on league rosters this year.
Army officer and Knight-Hennessy scholar Joe Nail just wrapped up a summer project raising money for veterans. And by “summer project,” we mean mind-boggling achievement. In three months, Nail ran marathons in all 50 states. (He also did 1,000 push-ups in each state, just in case you were a little ho-hum on the running 1,310 miles thing.)
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