The Institute for Chemical Biology will draw students and faculty from across Stanford to drive innovation and discovery in biomedical science and train a new generation of "physician-scientist-engineers."

Combining neuroscience and chemical engineering, researchers at Stanford University have developed a process that renders a mouse brain transparent. The postmortem brain remains whole — not sliced or sectioned in any way — with its three-dimensional complexity of fine wiring and molecular structures completely intact and able to be measured and probed at will with visible light and chemicals.

In the new Thinking Matters course 'The Science of MythBusters,' Stanford freshmen learn the scientific method by studying exploding chicken manure and the mathematical probabilities of winning game shows.