Language

Number crunching decades of top 40 music for psychological insight

A lesson in communication from Scientific American

An elephant in a Korean zoo has developed a way to vocalize a handful of recognizable words in the Korean language. Sophie Bushwick reports

A captive beluga whale has altered his normal songs to more closely approximate human pitch and rhythms. Christopher Intagliata reports

Researchers develop a model for how we find certain sounds, like nails on a chalkboard, unbearable. Christie Nicholson reports

The mimicry of the whale, now deceased, was no match for that of a parrot, but is an example of vocal learning, nonetheless

Children could benefit from personalized lessons based on brain scans

Scientists have mapped a tiny roundworm's entire nervous system. Did it teach them anything about its behavior?

We tend to notice sounds that appear much more often and accurately than sounds that vanish. Christie Nicholson reports

In this excerpt from his new book, James R. Flynn explains how he came to understand how our minds have gained in cognitive skills during the 20th century

An unforgettable activity from Scientific American

The brain rewires itself to boost the remaining senses