Editing Crop circle (section)

=== 21st century ===
Since the start of the 21st century, crop formations have increased in size and complexity, with some featuring as many as 2,000 different shapes<ref name="Taylor2011" /> and some incorporating complex mathematical and scientific characteristics.<ref>{{cite news |author= Benjamin Radford |url= http://www.livescience.com/6546-beautiful-math-equation-crop-circle.html |title= 'Beautiful Math Equation' Found in Crop Circle |work= [[LiveScience]] |date= 8 June 2010 |access-date= 2012-01-01}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |author= Marc West |date= 2008-06-30 |url= http://plus.maths.org/content/pi-appears-crop-circle |title= Pi appears in crop circle |work= plus.maths.org. |access-date= 2012-01-01}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url= https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/crop-circle-season-arrives-with-a-mathematical-message-1982647.html |title= Crop circle season arrives with a mathematical message |department= This Britain |newspaper= The Independent |date= 2010-05-26 |access-date= 2012-01-01}}</ref>

The researcher Jeremy Northcote found that crop circles in the UK in 2002 were not spread randomly across the landscape. They tended to appear near roads, areas of medium-to-dense population, and cultural heritage monuments such as [[Stonehenge]] or [[Avebury]]. He found that they always appeared in areas that were easy to access. This suggests strongly that these crop circles were more likely to be caused by intentional human action than by paranormal activity. Another strong indication of that theory was that inhabitants of the zone with the most circles had a historical tendency for making large-scale formations, including stone circles such as Stonehenge, earthen mounds such as [[Silbury Hill]], long barrows such as [[West Kennet Long Barrow]], and [[:Category:White horses in England|white horses in chalk hills]].<ref name="northcote"/>