Domesticated plants

The earliest servant

The first plant pressed into human service is probably not the one you’re thinking of.

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A difficult problem

Too hard

The challenge problem was difficult.  The interesting question is: why?

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A legacy

Lessons learned

We ponder what we want to leave behind.

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Unimportant history

Obscure biography

A book about someone we’d never heard of turns out to be unexpectedly interesting.

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The student’s load

Getting bigger

Why are students carrying around more stuff than they used to?

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Getting quieter

A small triumph

We note an important advance in technology that has happened without fanfare.

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The right textbook

Too big, too slow, too sparse?

We describe a problem that you probably don’t have.

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The photographer’s intention

Photographs and images

Technology can make images much more expressive and creative than even a decade or two ago.  Mostly, it hasn’t.

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Getting the stars right

Does it matter?

We wonder how careful a fiction author really needs to be.

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Octopus arithmetic

How different could it get?

We ponder how to communicate with aliens.

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