Science and Technology

Experimental Robotics final project / Kurt Hickman

Stanford students' robots play golf, stack dominoes, swat balloons

Robotics students put their programming chops to work by teaching robots to play golf, stack dominoes and swat balloons.  Video


Cherubini opera fragment / Uwe Bergmann/SLAC

SLAC X-rays resurrect 200-year-old lost aria

Thanks to scientists at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, audiences can hear a 200-year-old opera by composer Luigi Cherubini in full for the first time in centuries.


Laura Jacobson brainscan art / Copyright Marty Kelly

Artwork inspired by MRI brain scans installed at Stanford imaging center

Clay wall sculptures, etchings and acrylics, inspired by images of the human brain, make up a new art installation at the Stanford Center for Cognitive and Neurobiological Imaging.


Eric Dunham discusses his research/Photo: Kurt Hickman

Earthquake acoustics can indicate if a massive tsunami is imminent, Stanford researchers find

Stanford scientists have noted acoustic characteristics of the 2011 Japan quake that indicated it would cause a large tsunami, offering hope for a warning system.  Video


Illustration of an advanced zinc-air battery/ Image: Dai Lab

Stanford scientists develop efficient zinc-air battery

Stanford scientists have created a zinc-air battery that could become a low-cost alternative to lithium-ion technology.


A green sea turtle glides through open water near the Hawaiian Islands. /Photo: Chris Pincetich, Marine Photobank

Recovery of Hawaiian green sea turtles far short of historic levels, Stanford-led study suggests

A new Stanford-led report suggests that calls to lift protection for Hawaiian green sea turtles may be premature.


Stanford faculty with California Gov. Jerry Brown / Photo: Rob Jordan

Stanford scientists urge action on global climate change

California Gov. Jerry Brown accepted a consensus statement signed by 520 scientists, including 48 from Stanford, that sounds the alarm on climate change and offers recommendations for solving global environmental challenges.


Na Young Kim at optical bench / L.A. Cicero

Stanford physicists develop revolutionary low-power polariton laser

Stanford physicists have created a new method of producing coherent matter beams. The new low-power laser system could one day be used in everything from consumer goods to quantum computers.


Stanford engineers' new nanoscavenger purifies water, gets retrieved by magnet

Stanford engineers have developed a synthetic nanoparticle to be used in water purification that, unlike its peers, can be quickly and completely removed magnetically after it does its job disinfecting, depolluting and desalinating contaminated water.


African clawed frog / Photo: Brian Gatwicke

Frogs in California harbor deadly amphibian pathogen, Stanford researchers find

The African clawed frog, which were brought to the U.S. a century ago, harbor a fungal infection that is decimating amphibian populations worldwide, according to a School of Medicine study of these frogs in California.


Arianna Gleason and Wendy Mao portrait / Photo: Benjamin Shaw

Earth's iron core is surprisingly weak, Stanford researchers say

The researchers used a diamond anvil cell to squeeze iron at pressures as high as 3 million times that felt at sea level to recreate conditions at the center of Earth. The findings could refine theories of how the planet and its core evolved.


Harvester ants use the rate of brief antennal contact to regulate colony behavior. /Photo: Dennak Murphy

Evolution shapes new rules for ant behavior, Stanford research finds

Biologist Deborah M. Gordon's decades-long study of the collective behavior of harvester ant colonies has provided a rare real-time look at natural selection at work.  Video


Artist's composite of the Kepler spacecraft. /Illustration: NASA

Stanford professor and former NASA official explains how NASA might revive the Kepler space telescope

Consulting Professor Scott Hubbard helped guide the Kepler mission when he served as director of NASA Ames Research Center. He explains how NASA might bring the planet-hunting spacecraft back online.


Small skin-like heart monitor.

Stanford engineers monitor heart health using paper-thin flexible 'skin'

Engineers combine layers of flexible materials into pressure sensors to create a wearable heart monitor thinner than a dollar bill. The skin-like device could one day provide doctors with a safer way to check the condition of a patient's heart.  Video


Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve's Leslie Shao-ming Sun Field Station. Photo: L.A. Cicero

Stanford's Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve at 40

In the past 40 years, research conducted at Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve has transformed fundamental ecology science. Now, interdisciplinary studies are providing more guidance than ever on how to help conserve the planet.  Video