Language

Close up photo of a one week old baby boy with dark hair and eyes open

LanguageOctober 7, 2025

Babies’ Brains Recognize Foreign Languages They Heard before Birth

Babies process foreign languages they heard in utero much like their mother tongue, researchers find

Meghie Rodrigues

Taylor Swift gestures while speaking at NYU commencement ceremony

LanguageSeptember 25, 2025

Scientists Take on Taylor Swift’s Linguistic Eras

An analysis of Taylor Swift’s interviews suggests her speech pattern has changed over her career

Mohana Basu, Nature magazine

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A traditional Italian spaghetti cacio e pepe dish, featuring al dente pasta coated in a creamy blend of Pecorino Romano cheese and freshly ground black pepper

CultureSeptember 19, 2025

Tipsy Bats and Perfect Pasta Win Ig Nobel Prizes for Weird Science Research

Winners of the annual Ig Nobel awards include the science of tipsy bats and the physics of cacio e pepe

Chris Simms, Nature magazine

NeuroscienceSeptember 19, 2025

Writing in Your Books Is Good for Your Brain—Here’s Why

Annotating the margins of books is an important part of deep reading and has a long legacy of merit in both science and literature

Brianne Kane

A series of yellow speech bubbles with the words

Social SciencesSeptember 19, 2025

The Linguistic Science behind Viral Social Media Slang

Linguist Adam Aleksic explains how viral slang and algorithm-driven speech aren’t destroying language––they’re accelerating its natural evolution.

Rachel Feltman, Allison Parshall, Jeffery DelViscio

Three overlapping speech bubbles made from puzzle pieces

LanguageSeptember 18, 2025

Genetics Can Track How Languages Mixed in the Past

New research shows that wherever human populations mix, their languages blend as well

Cody Cottier

Games illustration with a green background

LanguageSeptember 16, 2025

Science Crossword: A Little Light Launch

Play this crossword inspired by the October 2025 issue of Scientific American

Aimee Lucido

LanguageAugust 19, 2025

Science Crossword: A Trip Down Memory Lane

Play this crossword inspired by the September 2025 issue of Scientific American

Aimee Lucido

Bird FluJuly 15, 2025

Science Crossword: On the Fly

Your favorite word game with a twist of science

Aimee Lucido

3D Illustration, chatbot speech bubble with many smaller speech bubbles branching off to the right side in an artificial intelligence neural network structure

LanguageJuly 11, 2025

ChatGPT Is Changing the Words We Use in Conversation

Words frequently used by ChatGPT, including “delve” and “meticulous,” are getting more common in spoken language, according to an analysis of more than 700,000 hours of videos and podcasts

Vanessa Bates Ramirez

Illustration of a chatbot with speech bubble

Artificial IntelligenceJuly 9, 2025

Each AI Chatbot Has Its Own Distinctive Writing Style—Just as Humans Do

ChatGPT and Gemini AI write in different idioms, linguists find

Karolina Rudnicka

LanguageJune 17, 2025

Science Crossword: Throwing Shades

Play this crossword inspired by the July/August 2025 issue of Scientific American

Aimee Lucido

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