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Quick Studies

Learn, Stanford style, without going back to class. Presenting Quick Studies, a monthly collection of articles, videos and podcasts curated exclusively for you.

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Google's Artificial Brain Learns to Identify Cats
A Google research team led by Stanford computer scientist Andrew Y. Ng used an array of 16,000 processors to create a neural network—basically, an artificial brain—and turned it loose on millions of images sampled from YouTube videos. Without any human help, it taught itself to recognize a certain object often repeated in those images: cats.
Read the New York Times article  »

 

Why Plato and Beckett Should Be on Your Reading List
Forget about searching for morals and meaning. Joshua Landy, associate professor of French and Italian, suggests a new way to stretch your rational and abstract thinking muscles while reading complex texts.
Read the Stanford News Service article  »

Show Me the Money (and I'll Lose the Weight)
Want to shed a few pounds? Write down your values, or enter a weight-losing lotto. A recent conference at the Center for Social Innovation at Stanford explored ways to encourage healthy behavior.
Read the Stanford Graduate School of Business article  »

Watch

Boredom as a Catalyst for Creativity video
Through the course of showcasing his own compositions, self-created instruments and unorthodox notations, music professor Mark Applebaum raises questions about the essence of music and the art of boredom.
Watch the TEDxStanford video  » (17 min.)

Online Education and the Traditional University Degree video
How will credentials change as education goes online? Stanford's President John Hennessy and Khan Academy's Salman Khan debate the big questions.
Watch the D10 conference discussion  » (18 min.)

Making Air Travel Sustainable video
Airplanes get 81 passenger miles per gallon at 10 times the speed of cars. Not too bad, says aeronautics professor Ilan Kroo, '78, MS '79, PhD '83. But we need to do better. Kroo gives a glimpse into the future of sustainable aviation.
Watch the Stanford Vimeo lecture  » (16 min.)

Listen

When God Talks Back audio
What does it mean to pour Him a cup of coffee? Tanya Luhrmann, a Stanford anthropology professor, talks with NPR's Fresh Air about her new book on the American evangelical relationship with God.
Listen to the NPR podcast  » (38 min.)

The Civic Impact (or Lack Thereof) of Youth Volunteerism audio
There is widespread consensus among educators, policymakers and academics that youth volunteerism "makes citizens." Actually, argues sociology professor Doug McAdam, the great majority of volunteer experiences have little impact.
Listen to the Stanford Social Innovation podcast  » (75 min.)

When Stem Cells Go Rogue audio
A study has uncovered the real culprit behind clogged arteries: stem cells. Stanford professor of surgery Jill Helms, who co-authored the study, goes on NPR's "Talk of the Nation" to explain why understanding the behavior of stem cells could lead to insights into cancer and other diseases.
Listen to the NPR story  » (18 min.)