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Science + Tech – Articles, Analysis, Opinion

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Math in yarn. Carthage College

Why I teach math through knitting

In this professor’s class, there are no calculators. Instead, students learn advanced math by talking, drawing pictures, playing with beach balls – and knitting.
In this file photo taken on on Oct. 4, 1987, a Soviet army officer presents ammunition rigged with chemical agents during a visit by Western diplomats and journalists to a chemical weapons research facility in Shikhany, Saratov region, Russia. The facility in Shikhany led the efforts to develop Soviet chemical weapons, including Novichok-class nerve agents. John Thor Dahlburg/ AP Photo

What is Novichok? A neurotoxicologist explains

Novichok are a set of molecules that are some of the most deadly nerve agents ever developed. They are almost impossible to detect and clean up.
Just like teenagers, robot drivers need lots of practice. iurii/Shutterstock.com

Even self-driving cars need driver education

Autonomous cars need to learn how to drive just like people do: with real-world practice on public roads. It’s key to safety, and to public confidence in the new technologies.
Once lauded for their vision and promise, Silicon Valley giants have made life so hard for locals that residents regularly protest the companies, including their amenities like charter buses to save workers from the region’s terrible traffic. AP Photo/Richard Jacobsen

Silicon Valley, from ‘heart’s delight’ to toxic wasteland

Big technology firms are becoming known for mistreating workers, customers and society as a whole. Is an economic powerhouse about to collapse like Detroit did years go?
You can’t resist the yawn. Chayanin Wongpracha/Shutterstock.com

What is it about yawning?

Everybody does it, but why? Scientists aren’t really sure if exhaustion, stress or some other social factor is at the root of yawning – and how it can be so contagious.
The designs, materials, cuts and graphics of jerseys are meant to stand out. AP Photo/Frank Augstein

What’s involved in designing World Cup jerseys?

World Cup jerseys have to please players, national officials, FIFA rulemakers and – perhaps most importantly – fans who buy them to show support for their teams.
Why do people constantly ‘move the goalposts’ when making judgments? JoeNattapon/Shutterstock.com

Why your brain never runs out of problems to find

It’s a psychological quirk that when something becomes rarer, people may spot it in more places than ever. What is the ‘concept creep’ that lets context change how we categorize the world around us?
US F/A-18 footage of a UFO (circled in red). Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. Parzival191919

Are we alone? The question is worthy of serious scientific study

About 5 percent of all UFO sightings cannot be easily explained by weather or human technology. A physicist argues that there’s compelling evidence to justify serious scientific study and that the skeptics should step aside – for the sake of humanity.
Genetically engineered tobacco plants growing in a greenhouse. Paul South

Helping plants remove natural toxins could boost crop yields by 47 percent

As the climate changes and the population grows, meeting the demand for food will become more difficult as arable land declines. But an international team of scientists has figured out an innovative solution to dramatically bumping up crop yields.