Cari Shane

Some see soft robots helping declining populations of pollinators do their jobs, or sifting through wreckage in the wake of a building collapse, or even performing simple, practical tasks in tight spaces; others see them traveling the oceans or traversing the insides of our bodies to scope out medical red flags.

Some, like Robert Katzschmann, an assistant professor of robotics at ETH Zurich in Switzerland, see the need to tread a little more lightly and a lot more quietly in our world, which ...

Robert Jacobs. Courtesy of Manatt, Phelps, & Phillips, LLP
Robert Jacobs is a lawyer in LA who works with musicians and songwriters.
He says cases like copyright infringement can be long and arduous, but he loves his job.
Here's his story, as told to writer Cari Shane.
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While we are cleaning our clothes, we are polluting our air. A typical U.S. household does about 300 loads of laundry every year and because our cleaning habits are bad for the environment, scientists want us to cut back.
Not only does washing our clothes this much use an excessive amount of energy, it also spews out tons of carbon dioxide. This is bad for the environment, and it wears down our clothes, which adds clothing to our landfills. Researchers report that the E.U. alone produces 2.2 ...

Richard Dougherty grew up in a home with a rectangular dining table, pocket-size windows, and small rooms. Built more than 200 years ago, the Georgian-style house in Ireland had once been used as a church rectory. It was dark, damp, and cold, which “made it particularly difficult for me, as someone who depends on clear eye contact, lip-reading, and other facial expressions for communication,” he says. The closed-off rooms didn’t help either “[because they] limited my visual reach and cues.”
D...

Dr. DeShawn Taylor Dr. DeShawn Taylor
DeShawn Taylor is an ob-gyn in Phoenix, Arizona, where she's been fighting restrictions for years.
Her clinic provides reproductive healthcare to some of the city's most underserved populations.
These are her thoughts on the potential overturning of Roe v. Wade, as told to writer Cari Shane.
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Our ability to count isn’t a distinct human trait. Animals can count, too. And, just like humans, some animals are better at math than others.
For decades, researchers have designed experiments that have helped determine that animals, including insects, can count and what specific animals are mathletes.
This research, conducted on diverse taxonomic groups from primates, to insects, to birds, suggests that animals not only distinguish between more and less, but specific numbers, too. Called nu...

An abstract mathematical idealization may hold the answer to how societies can scale good solutions into behavioral change, according to a new cross-disciplinary study involving many fields of science.
The study led by a University of Vermont researcher was originally designed to figure out what kinds of behavioral shifts are needed for societies to adopt policies that would help confront climate change and pandemic infections. The resulting model suggests that social change may depend on the...

Once upon a time, it was statistically accurate to say that sports teams playing on their home turf won more games than visiting teams. For decades, this was the case. Researchers studied this “home field advantage” in a range of sports and venues — from individual to team sports, as well as across the high school, college and professional levels — to determine if it held true everywhere. In all of these, scientists found that the home team won more than half the time and as often as 70 perce...

A London concert made headlines in 2014 — not so much for the comeback performance of famed violinist Kyung-Wha Chung, but rather for her reaction to a coughing child in the audience. The musician stopped the performance and, from the stage, berated the parents.
It wasn’t the first time that someone in the classical music world has reacted strongly to a coughing audience member, and it likely won’t be the last. At a Chicago performance in 2012, a symphony conductor interrupted by coughing aud...

Your level of fitness isn’t limited to the number you see on your scale or the size of your biceps. Research suggests there are four main indicators that together assess our fitness: aerobic health, muscular strength and endurance, flexibility, and body composition.
Remember, being thin isn’t the same as being healthy. In fact, a study released in 2008 suggests that you can be fat and fit and thin and unhealthy. The researcher behind it found that 1 in 4 people has an underlying condition, li...

Your success will depend on the type of relationship you want to create, say experts.
Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung popularized the terms introvert and extrovert in the 1900s; but a century later, his postulations about personality types have become so warped by popular culture that the reputations of introverts everywhere are at stake.
Jung originally sought to understand how people derive and orient their energies. That is to say, according to Jung, extroverts draw their energy from those ar...

If you’ve lived in DC long enough to witness the onslaught of tourists for cherry blossom season, then you know why an article like this one is necessary. As residents of our great non-state, we should get to reap the rewards of this pink-filled season sans crowds: We deserve to enjoy long, 70-degree days that include floating daffodils, popping blossoms, and fewer of the swamp-effects of the impending summer months.
First, some facts: Peak bloom at the Tidal Basin, the mecca for cherry bloss...

When Charles Dickens wrote that “Man is the only animal that knows how to kiss,” he seems to have gotten the facts wrong. A simple Google Images search for “animals kissing” will turn up millions of hits. In fact, you can find plenty of examples in nature: moose and ground squirrels “brush noses”; turtles “tap heads”; many species of bats even use their tongues during courtship, writes Sheril Kirshenbaum in The Science of Kissing: What Our Lips Are Telling Us.
But since behavioral scientists ...

Most states require car owners to carry a minimum level of insurance coverage no matter what they drive. Leasing or financing a new vehicle comes with additional car insurance requirements. Even if you don’t own a car, you may want or need coverage. Whatever reason you have for buying a car insurance policy, this guide can help you through the process.
Determine which types of car insurance you are required to have and which are optional.
Have your personal and vehicular information at hand.
...

There’s a bit of debate about the origin of the phrase, “A picture is worth a thousand words.” Some believe it’s a proverb coined by the ancient Chinese philosopher Confucius; others say it’s a modern turn of phrase invented by the advertising industry at the turn of the 20th century.
But no matter its origin, the phrase begs a question: If art can express more than the words, then why was the alphabet ever invented? And the answer to that question still remains a bit of a head scratcher.
Wri...