stem

The four major disciplines propelling our students and our society forward; all about education in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

The Relational Ontology of Personhood. AI-Generated.
Core Thesis Reality is intelligible through ordered relation. To identify anything as a determinate thing is to locate it within distinctions, boundaries, conditions, and modes of relation that make it the kind of thing it is. A thing is not understood merely by naming that it exists. It is understood by asking what it is, where it exists, when it exists, how it exists, what relations make that mode of existence possible, and whether its mode of being rises to the level of personhood.
By Peter Thwing - Host of the FST Podcast19 days ago in Education
AI Can Learn Everything You Do. Here’s What It Can’t Copy.
When others have learned everything you can do, what is left? In an interview room, three resumes sit on the table. HR asks the first candidate, “What was your biggest failure?”
By Jin20 days ago in Education
25 Fields Medalists Just Warned the World About AI. The Reason Is Not What You Think.
When machines begin to solve problems: the warning from 25 Fields Medalists and the crisis of mathematical misalignment On September 11, 2026, a 700-word statement appeared at mathandai.org . The initial signatories included Terence Tao, Peter Scholze, Manjul Bhargava, Maryna Viazovska, Ngô Bảo Châu, and Yu Deng. In total, 25 Fields Medalists signed it. Within days, more than 5,000 people added their names.
By Jin21 days ago in Education
When a Classroom Becomes a Future: Andreas Szakacs and a Journey to Understand Education in Somalia
A classroom can look like an ordinary place. A few desks. A blackboard. Books stacked in a corner. Students sitting together, waiting for a lesson to begin.
By Andreas szakacs24 days ago in Education
Andreas Szakacs Travels to Somalia to Tell the Stories of Children Fighting for an Education
Andreas Szakacs Travels to Somalia to Tell the Stories of Children Fighting for an Education A documentary journey exploring education, resilience, and the dreams of children growing up against extraordinary challenges.
By Andreas szakacs26 days ago in Education
You Don’t Have a Research Gap. You Have a Reading Problem.
The lab meeting was over. Your advisor’s last question still hung in the air like a tack you hadn’t quite pulled out of the chair. You had indeed read them. You could even recite the abstract of that Nature paper from memory. But when you tried to distill from all that reading a single thing you could actually do, your mind went blank.
By Jin28 days ago in Education
The 500,000th Postdoc Just Outnumbered the Mules.
China's Postdoctoral Enrollment Passes 500,000 In late August 2026, the serial number ticked past 500,000. I looked up my own – 299544. That puts me somewhere around the cumulative 300,000 mark. From my number to this one, there are 200,000 people who came after.
By Jin30 days ago in Education
I Spent 15 Years Dreaming of a Professorship – Here’s What Nobody Tells You About 2026‑2027
0. The question you’re most afraid of Not fear‑mongering. Your observation holds: among the many German PhDs around you, few have landed a 211 faculty position directly. Over the past five years, more than 80% of newly hired computer‑science faculty at China’s 985/211 universities have completed at least one postdoctoral stint abroad, and a significant portion returned with an “Overseas Outstanding Youth” (or equivalent) talent programme. Direct PhD‑to‑lecturer/associate‑professor cases have become rare, concentrated in specialised fields (chips, security) or internal hires.
By Jin2 months ago in Education
The Devil’s Butthole
In a mud‑splattered hut on the outskirts of a village that would later be christened “London,” a nameless peat‑stained peasant stared at the empty pen where his prized flock of three chickens used to roost.
By Elton Reads A Book A Week (Elton Edgar)2 months ago in Education
The $2,000 Problem
On August 1, 2026, OpenAI posted an announcement titled Ten Advances in Mathematics . Their next-generation model, Astra, had solved ten problems across high-dimensional geometry, coding theory, group theory, operator algebras, quantum complexity, lattice cryptography, and extremal combinatorics. Several of these—constructing non-sofic groups, disproving the Connes rigidity conjecture, proving an exponential parallel repetition theorem for general two-player quantum games—had been open for two to three decades, some for half a century.
By Jin2 months ago in Education
China’s Postgrad Exam Is Cooling—and the Smartest Kids Are Aiming Lower
I. A Seemingly Contradictory Decline The registration numbers for China’s 2026 national postgraduate entrance exam have been released: 3.88 million. That marks a second consecutive year of decline, with a cumulative drop of over 800,000 candidates.
By Jin2 months ago in Education
The Boy Who Carried Light
In a small village surrounded by dry mountains and dusty roads, there lived a boy named Zahir. The village had no electricity most nights, and when the sun disappeared behind the hills, darkness took over everything—homes, streets, and even dreams.
By Behind the Curtain3 months ago in Education