The wonder of Hawaii's coral reefs brings thousands of awed tourists to the islands every year.  But pollution from a variety of human activities is threatening to ruin this economic and ecological lifeblood of the Hawaiian Islands.

Tagged: Environmental Research, Hawaii, Environment & Sustainability, Engineering

Each year indoor air pollution, caused in part by cookstoves, is a key factor in the deaths of two million children from acute respiratory infections in developing countries. Since 2006, Stanford researchers have been working in Bangladesh to find practical, low-cost incentives that would encourage people to use cleaner, safer cookstoves.

Tagged: Environmental Research, pollution, Environment & Sustainability, International Issues, Engineering, Medicine

Stanford researchers are using genetic engineering and some of the world's smallest microscopes to better understand how specific circuits in the brain operate.

Tagged: brain imaging, NeuroVentures, Human Health, Engineering, Humanities & Sciences, Medicine

Stanford engineers and others create a structural design that lets buildings rock during earthquakes, then pull themselves into plumb when the shaking stops, confining damage to replaceable steel "fuses."

Tagged: On Campus, Engineering

Imagine a tiny organism that lives inside your body, detecting imbalances caused by disease and immediately responding with natural chemicals. Stanford students are attempting to engineer just such non-pathogenic bacteria.

Tagged: Health Research, Human Health, Engineering

The first few times that scientists mapped out all the DNA in a human being in 2001, each effort cost hundreds of millions of dollars and involved more than 250 people.  In a paper published online Aug. 9 by Nature Biotechnology, a Stanford University professor reports sequencing his entire genome for less than $50,000 and with a team of just two other people.

Tagged: genome, Health Research, Human Health, Engineering

What are the chances of a nuclear world war? What is the risk of a nuclear attack on United States soil? The risk of a child born today suffering an early death due to nuclear war is at least 10 percent, according to Martin Hellman, Stanford Professor Emeritus in Engineering,

Tagged: war, On Campus, Engineering

A century after German physicist Gustav Mie derived the math to explain why the colors in some stained glass windows look especially resplendent in the sunlight, a team of Stanford engineers has built upon his work to potentially improve a means of harvesting energy from the sun.

Tagged: solar, Environment & Sustainability, Engineering

At any moment, the winds in high-altitude jet streams hold roughly 100 times more energy than all the electricity being consumed on Earth, according to a study by Stanford environmental and climate scientists Cristina Archer and Ken Caldeira.

Tagged: Environmental Research, Environment & Sustainability, Engineering, Humanities & Sciences

Air travel is projected to triple in the next 30 years. Stanford researchers are working to reduce the environmental impact of this increase by finding innovative ways to reduce aviation energy requirements and noise pollution.

Tagged: aviation, conservation, Environment & Sustainability, Engineering