How to make your apology more effective – new research

Sorry really can be the hardest word.

Shiri Lev-Ari, Reader in Psychology, Royal Holloway University of London • conversation
May 8, 2025 • ~5 min

Noam Chomsky at 96: The linguist, educator, philosopher and public thinker has had a massive intellectual and moral influence

Noam Chomsky’s notion of the human instinct for freedom ties together his many intellectual pursuits, from educating creative, independent citizens to rejecting social and economic hierarchies.

Robert F. Barsky, Professor of Humanities and Professor of Law, Vanderbilt University • conversation
Dec. 3, 2024 • ~15 min

Could we ever decipher an alien language? Uncovering how AI communicates may be the key

Decoding emergent languages in AI can have many behefits.

Olaf Lipinski, PhD Student in Artificial Intelligence, University of Southampton • conversation
Nov. 7, 2024 • ~7 min

Middle-class British people are talking more alike than ever

The rise of corporate inclusivity might be responsible.

Vittorio Tantucci, Senior lecturer in Linguistics and Chinese Linguistics, Lancaster University • conversation
Aug. 28, 2024 • ~8 min

If you want Americans to pay attention to climate change, just call it climate change

Phrases like ‘climate crisis,’ ‘climate emergency’ or ‘climate justice’ might seem to escalate the urgency, but a large survey shows they don’t help and may actually hurt.

Gale Sinatra, Professor of Education and Psychology, University of Southern California • conversation
Aug. 12, 2024 • ~5 min

Words such as racist slurs can literally hurt – here’s the science

Research has disproven the saying ‘sticks and stones may break my bones but names will never hurt me’.

Glenn Hadikin, Senior Lecturer of English Language and Linguistics, University of Portsmouth • conversation
July 3, 2024 • ~6 min

African elephants address one another with name-like calls − similar to humans

Humans aren’t the only animals that have names for each other − and studying animals that use names can teach researchers more about how human names evolved.

Mickey Pardo, Postdoctoral Fellow in Fish, Wildlife and Conservation Biology, Colorado State University • conversation
June 11, 2024 • ~9 min

Are you really in love? How expanding your love lexicon can change your relationships and how you see yourself

Words have power, and what vocabulary you have at your disposal to describe your relationships with other people can shape what directions those relationships can take.

Georgi Gardiner, Associate Professor of Philosophy and Fellow of the University of Tennessee Humanities Center (UTHC), University of Tennessee • conversation
Feb. 12, 2024 • ~10 min

When research study materials don't speak their participants' language, data can get lost in translation

Translation involves more than just transferring words from one language to another. Better translations of study materials can improve both the diversity of study participants and research results.

Sonia Colina, Professor of Spanish and Portuguese, University of Arizona • conversation
Dec. 7, 2023 • ~9 min

Your mental dictionary is part of what makes you unique − here's how your brain stores and retrieves words

Most people can draw from tens of thousands of words in their memory within milliseconds. Studying this process can improve language disorder treatment and appreciation of the gift of communication.

Nichol Castro, Assistant Professor of Communicative Disorders and Sciences, University at Buffalo • conversation
Nov. 7, 2023 • ~8 min

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