Author: Daniel Midgley (page 26 of 41)

157: Digital Extinction

Will the Internet save minority languages, or kill them?

Many small languages lack an online presence, as only a handful of languages dominate the Web. On the other hand, we’ve never had so many tools to include other languages in …

156: Emotional Language

Emotions are fleeting. But when they’re captured in language, we can study how they spread from person to person, and even through time.

What impact does the emotional language of others have on you? And how many emotions are there …

155: The Language of Denialism (featuring Kylie Sturgess)

How do you convince others of your views when the facts are overwhelmingly against you?

If you’re one of the many hoaxers, cranks, and denialists out there, you use language. What rhetorical tactics do they rely on, and how can …

154: Pointing

Pointing at stuff is something every human understands.

A new study shows that for babies, pointing bridges the gap between communication and language. Could pointing have kickstarted language? And do any other animals do it?

Linguist Daniel Midgley gets to …

153: Acting Human

Humanity, we may have a problem.

Computers are getting good at imitating us. How good? Good enough to fool us into accepting their scientific papers and their robocalls. Might they have already passed the Turing Test? And what are bots …

152: Listening to Plants (featuring Monica Gagliano)

Humanity, we may have a problem.

Computers are getting good at imitating us. How good? Good enough to fool us into accepting their scientific papers and their robocalls. Might they have already passed the Turing Test? And what are bots …

151: Search Censorship

Search engines help us find what we’re looking for. So when governments put pressure on search companies, the results can be sinister.

A cyber-monitoring group says Microsoft’s Bing is squelching politically sensitive topics. What are their responsibilities, and what can …

150: The Voynich Manuscript

The Voynich Manuscript is 600 years old, written in a strange script, and it’s never been deciphered.

Is it a guide to the universe, a book of secrets, or is it just pages and pages of gibberish? Modern techniques are …

149: Tongue Twisters

Do you like rubber baby buggy bumpers? Or big black bug’s blood?

Tongue twisters are fun, but they’re also a serious area of study. MIT researchers think they may have found the world’s toughest tongue twister. Why are tongue twisters …

148: The Language of Smell

People are great at describing colours, but smells? Not so much.

Could that be because of the language we speak? Just how does language influence our perception?

Linguist Daniel Midgley takes us into a great debate on this episode of …

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