Monthly focus

Language lessons

03 January 2019

The European Union has 24 official languages and many more minority and unofficial ones. Image credit - Pxhere, licensed under CC0

The languages we speak and how we speak them are an integral part of our identity, shaping not only how we see the world but also how people see us. In January, Horizon puts language under the spotlight, kicking off the month with a look at Europe’s minority languages and how to preserve them. We also delve into the social and cognitive aspects of language use, finding out how accents arise and how they affect people’s perception of the speaker, and discovering how ageing affects linguistic capacity in bilingual people – and vice versa. We also speak to researchers looking into the language impairment dyslexia and potential options for early diagnosis.

For babies, the process of learning how to speak is a highly interactive one. Image Credit - Pixabay License

health

31 January 2019

Why are children so good at learning languages?

When it comes to learning languages small children beat machines hands down, even though they are exposed to only a fraction of the vocabulary fed into algorithms. So what exactly makes them so good?

Bilingualism was previously thought to confer an element of protection against age-related cognitive decline. Image credit - Pexels, licensed under CC0

health

16 January 2019

Claims that bilingualism keeps brains young could be ‘wishful thinking’

Speaking two languages is a highly valuable skill but is an unlikely defence against age-related cognitive decline as previously thought, according to new research on ageing and bilingualism.

Diagnosing dyslexia before children start to read would be the 'holy grail' for researchers. Image credit - Jay Inslee, CC BY-ND 2.0

health | frontier research

08 January 2019

Noise and motion links to dyslexia pave way for early diagnosis

Most children are able to learn language almost effortlessly. But for those with communication disorders such as dyslexia, mastering their native tongue can be a challenge. Researchers are exploring how links with noise, language and motion could help diagnose problems earlier and pave the way for better treatment.

Parents should not leave it up to kids to decide whether to learn a minority language, says Prof. Anneli Sarhimaa. Image credit - Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz

interview | social sciences

03 January 2019

The internet is helping to revive minority languages

Europe’s minority languages have been squeezed by nation-building, urbanisation and the ‘lingua francas’ of the internet, according to Professor Anneli Sarhimaa, specialist in Northern European and Baltic languages and cultures at the University of Mainz, Germany. But one lesson she has learned from researching the fate of the Finnic language Karelian, spoken in Finland and north-western Russia, is that digital media can also help revitalise them.

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Cleaning Europe's air

As commutes dropped during coronavirus lockdowns, many of Europe’s city-dwellers breathed cleaner air. In July, Horizon takes a look closer look at our air pollution problem, what it is, how it affects human health and whether now is the time to make the move to greener transport. We spoke to social epidemiologist Dr Basile Chaix about what it will take to capitalise on the post-coronavirus calls for greener cities to really change our urban spaces – and transport habits. We dissect the properties of particulate matter to understand how characteristics such as particle size or number relate to toxicity, and what they do to human cells. With wildfires known to strike particularly in the summer, we look at how scientists are tracking this lesser-known source of air pollution to better understand the impact on human health. And we find out how a soybean-related asthma outbreak in 1980s Spain is influencing air pollution research today.

The first seismometer on the moon, with solar panels and an antenna pointed at Earth, was placed there by Apollo 11 astronauts and tested by Buzz Aldrin stamping his foot. Image credit - NASA

Moonquakes and marsquakes: How we peer inside other worlds

Eavesdropping on the shudders and groans echoing deep inside alien worlds like Mars and the moon is revealing what lies far beneath their surfaces and could teach us more about how our own planet formed.

The X chromosome, of which women have two and men have one, is believed to influence immune response. Image credit: Ketut Subiyanto/Pexels

Q&A: How coronavirus is putting a spotlight on sex differences in medicine

More than six months into the coronavirus crisis, data show that not just age, but also biological sex plays a pivotal role in the manifestation and response to Covid-19, with more men dying from acute infections versus women in the short term. This discrepancy has shined a spotlight on a key theme that has gained traction in recent years: is enough being done to account for sex and gender in disease and medicine? Not enough, says Dr Sabine Oertelt-Prigione, the chair of sex and gender-sensitive medicine at Radboud University in the Netherlands and a member of the European Commission’s expert group on gendered innovations.

Language lessons

Republish this content

Why are children so good at learning languages?

Claims that bilingualism keeps brains young could be ‘wishful thinking’

Noise and motion links to dyslexia pave way for early diagnosis