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PODCAST

The Future of Everything

Stanford Engineering

Host Russ Altman, a professor of bioengineering, genetics, and medicine at Stanford, is your guide to the latest science and engineering breakthroughs. Join Russ and his guests as they explore cutting-edge advances that are shaping the future of everything from AI to health and renewable energy. Along the way, “The Future of Everything” delves into ethical implications to give listeners a well-rounded understanding of how new technologies and discoveries will impact society. Whether you’re a

science medicine

All Episodes

00:28:02

Scott Delp: Better gait, better life

The Future of Everything ·

2019/12/13

A biomechanical engineer explains how new diagnostics and improved understanding of human movement are yielding great leaps forward in the treatment of motor dysfunction. Engineer Scott Delp first got interested in the details of human movement when he was injured in a skiing accident and spent five years trying to recover. Back then, today’s powerful diagnostic tools, like MRI, weren’t generally available, and Delp experienced many roadblocks and false starts in his recovery. Delp turned that

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00:28:00

Stephen Quake: What can the DNA in your blood reveal...

The Future of Everything ·

2019/11/22

Russ Altman: Today on The Future of Everything, the future of detecting DNA in your blood.Now DNA is the building block of life. It is a relatively simple long molecule or polymer made out of four components or DNA bases which have one letter abbreviations, the famous ATCG, which stand for their chemical names. It’s like a string of beans, beads, beads, but it is long. A human genome is made of about three billion DNA bases, divided into 23 chromosomes. So if you add up the beads in each chromosome,

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00:28:02

Elizabeth Sattely: Plants are the ultimate chemists

The Future of Everything ·

2019/11/15

They make a remarkable array of chemicals to survive the world around them. One engineer is using that knowledge to help people live better. When things aren’t going well for humans and other ambulatory creatures, they simply move on to a new location, a new life. For plants, it’s different, says chemical engineer Elizabeth Sattely, who studies the evolutionary adaptations plants make to survive. Unable to migrate, plants must make do with the hand that’s dealt them. And sometimes that hand is not

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00:28:01

Ross Shachter: Can AI improve mammography?

The Future of Everything ·

2019/10/25

In breast cancer pathology, a 2 percent chance of malignancy is the accepted threshold at which a radiologist refers the patient for further study. In reality, that threshold varies among doctors; some are more conservative, others less so. The result is either more false positives, in which a healthy patient worries unnecessarily they have cancer, or more-worrisome false negatives, in which a patient is told they are fine when they are not.One researcher working to reduce that gap is

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00:28:02

Ash Alizadeh: A New Age in Oncology

The Future of Everything ·

2019/10/18

In cancer detection, could a blood test replace a biopsy? Once, when a cancer was suspected, the next move often involved a biopsy – literally cutting out human tissue to ascertain malignancy. But that highly invasive model is now being overshadowed by the promise of “liquid biopsies.” In these non-invasive approaches, blood, spinal fluid and other bodily liquids are drawn and tested for the presence of cancer cells, bits of DNA or other molecules that are the unmistakable markers of serious

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00:28:04

Margot Gerritsen: How to get more women into data...

The Future of Everything ·

2019/10/11

Women face many roadblocks to careers in data science and other STEM disciplines. One Stanford professor is out to change perceptions and realities for women in these fields. It was in 2015 when Margot Gerritsen was asked to speak at a data conference with not a single other woman on the program that she knew that something had to be done to get women into the field. As then-director of the Institute for Computational and Mathematical Engineering (ICME), Gerritsen knew more than a thing or two

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00:28:03

Mildred Cho: Ethics in the age of easy gene editing

The Future of Everything ·

2019/10/04

How do new technologies and techniques for altering DNA get used? And who gets to use them? In recent years, the development of inexpensive genetic sequencing and easy gene editing technologies has given rise to a community of non-academic, amateur researchers who like to refer to themselves, only half-jokingly, as “biohackers.” But, says Mildred Cho, a research professor who has published frequently about bioethics, such communities are not bound by traditional “first-do-no-harm” ethical norms

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00:28:00

Lynn Hildemann: What pollutants are lurking in our...

The Future of Everything ·

2019/09/27

An expert on air quality talks about the hidden dangers inside our homes and offers some helpful tips on what you can do to reduce your exposure. We all know about the decades-long battle to improve air quality outdoors, but Stanford environmental engineer Lynn Hildemann says that while much progress has been made in that regard, it may have caused us to look past the pollutants in our own homes. Hildemann, who studies air pollution and its effects inside and outside the home, says that chemicals

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00:28:03

Steven Collins: New prosthetics should be better than...

The Future of Everything ·

2019/09/20

A mechanical engineer explains how more and better data is helping to create new prosthetics unlike any before. For years prosthetic limbs were merely functional devices, but recent advances in robotics and neuroscience are transforming the very meaning of the word "prosthetic." Steve Collins is a mechanical engineer who is helping to lead that transformation to the benefit of people who've had an amputation, stroke or battlefield injury. The field has come a long way since the days of strap-on

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00:28:03

Ami Bhatt: Lessons from the microbial world living...

The Future of Everything ·

2019/09/13

Russ Altman: Today, on The Future of Everything, the future of the microbiome. Now, the microbiome has gotten a lot of attention in the last few years. Now, what is a microbiome? I guess we will learn more, but for the purposes of this discussion, it’s the full set of microbial organisms, chiefly bacteria, but maybe others, that live in different niches within our body. Our mouth, nasal cavity, skin folds, everywhere that has contact with the outside world. The gut microbiome is one of those

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00:28:01

Mehran Sahami: The evolution of computer science...

The Future of Everything ·

2019/08/23

Once the core American curriculum meant reading, writing and arithmetic, but Stanford professor Mehran Sahami says we might soon have to add a fourth skill to that list, “coding.” Sahami thinks deeply about such matters. He’s the leading force behind recent changes in Stanford’s computer science curriculum. He notes that it may not be surprising that more students are choosing to major in computer science than ever before, but what might turn heads is the changing face and intellectual landscape of

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00:28:01

John Markoff: The past, present and future of Silicon...

The Future of Everything ·

2019/08/16

Russ Altman: Today, on The Future of Everything the future of Silicon Valley. Periodically, in human history every now and then there is an unusual mix of opportunity, capital, talent, technology in a geographical region that concentrates this and creates perhaps an unusual period of creativity, invention and sometimes great impact on a global scale. Far beyond, what you might expect from that local geography. I like to think about the Italian Art Renaissance in the 15th and 16th century, focused in

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00:28:00

James Landay: What’s next in human-computer interaction?

The Future of Everything ·

2019/07/19

Computers are everywhere and humans are engaging with them in nearly everything they do. Knowing this, the question becomes: How do we design a world around us so that technology makes life better, not worse? James Landay, an expert in human-computer interaction, says the key to thoughtfully integrating humans with digital technology is to put people first. This perspective draws on a philosophy known as human-centered or user-centered design. Within this approach, the first priority is to

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00:28:00

Sylvia Plevritis: Better cancer treatment through data

The Future of Everything ·

2019/07/19

Biomedical data scientist Sylvia Plevritis is an expert in computational modeling of cancer risk and treatment options hidden in the remarkable quantity of data available today. Rarely is a tumor made up of a single mutation, she says, but more commonly of a mix of different mutations. Such heterogenous tumors may require complex combinations of drugs to produce the most effective treatments. That’s where computers can help. Using mathematical simulations, Plevritis is helping patients and their

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00:28:02

Jeremy Weinstein: Technology in the public interest

The Future of Everything ·

2019/07/12

Political scientist Jeremy Weinstein has worked at both the White House and the United Nations. In both jobs, he encountered the ethical and policy concerns that new technologies can present to policymakers. As one example, he points to the fierce debate between Apple and national security experts over end-to-end encryption and the challenges investigators faced in accessing data on the iPhones of the perpetrators of a terrorist attack in San Bernardino in 2015. He wants universities, like Stanford,

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00:28:32

Kari Nadeau: Science takes on food allergies

The Future of Everything ·

2019/06/28

Once avoidance was the only answer, but a leading allergist says that advances in desensitizing allergies are challenging common convention. Food allergy expert Kari Nadeau, MD, PhD, says that as many as one in ten adults in the U.S. has a food allergy, many without knowing it. With consequences that range from mild to serious (including lethal anaphylaxis), it is imperative that medical scientists become better adept at spotting food allergies and ultimately at helping patients cope with

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00:28:02

Monica Lam: Privacy in the age of virtual assistants

The Future of Everything ·

2019/06/04

Can we reap the benefits of artificial intelligence while also protecting our personal information? From scheduling appointments to setting the thermostat to ordering pizza, virtual assistants are growing more commonplace by the day. Stanford professor Monica Lam says they will only become more entrenched as their capabilities grow and their voice-recognition skills become more accurate. Such developments are welcomed by many who rely upon Alexa and Siri and other virtual assistants. But it is

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00:28:15

Sharad Goel: How hidden bias affects the criminal...

The Future of Everything ·

2019/05/31

In-depth statistical analyses show time and again that subtle, unconscious bias is pervasive in the American justice system. The bigger question, however, is what to do about it? Sharad Goel is an expert in computational social science – that is, using computers and data to examine and address policy issues. He says unconscious bias is subtle but entrenched in American life, and nowhere are the consequences more concerning than in criminal justice. Goel has analyzed hundreds of millions of crime

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00:28:03

Paul Yock: Innovation in medical technology

The Future of Everything ·

2019/05/06

When Stanford’s Paul Yock was a young interventional cardiologist, he was frustrated by the complex, two-person process required to deliver life-saving stents. So, he invented a better way. His Rapid Exchange stenting and balloon angioplasty system, one of several inventions Yock is known for internationally, can be managed by just a single operator, making procedures like stent placement faster and safer. Yock is a man of many talents. He is a doctor, a professor of bioengineering and of mechanical

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00:27:59

Margaret Brandeau: Math and computers help reshape...

The Future of Everything ·

2019/05/06

Margaret Brandeau may carry a business card that reads Professor of Management Science and Engineering, but her expertise is in using complex systems models to solve challenges in public health policy. For instance, she recently created a sophisticated computer model of the national opioid crisis, which led her to the stark –and surprising – conclusion that it may take a short-term rise in deaths to ultimately reduce them. She didn’t come to that conclusion lightly, but made no less than 10 models

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