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THREE SO FAR. “The three z > 6 radio-loud quasars currently known, listed by increasing redshift, are: J0309+2717 at z = 6.10, J1427+3312 at z = 6.12, and J1429+5447 at z = 6.18.” https://lnkd.in/ds58Spd View in LinkedIn

FEW RADIO-LOUD QUASARS. “For the large majority of the remainder, the existing radio data are too shallow to robustly classify them as radio-quiet or radio-loud, although there are on-going efforts to obtain deeper radio observations of these objects.” https://lnkd.in/ds58Spd View in LinkedIn

Before and after for the Rose of Sharon. View in LinkedIn

THE MIGHTY INSECT. “The most advanced social insects—ants, termites, many species of bees and wasp—make up only about 3 percent of the known species of animals on earth. But on the land they make up in most habitats upwards of 50 percent of the biomass.” (The remarkable Professor EO Wilson) https://lnkd.in/dAbrgVEW View in LinkedIn

UNLIMITED COMBINATIONS. “The process of “word formation” enables a language to encode an essentially unlimited number of objects.” https://lnkd.in/d_bJcG9t View in LinkedIn

SMALL LEXICON KEY. “We model the probability of misunderstanding a signal and show that this limits the number of objects that can be described by a protolanguage. This “error limit” is not overcome by employing more sounds but by combining a small set of more easily distinguishable sounds into words.” https://lnkd.in/d_bJcG9t View in LinkedIn

MUDDY ORIGINS. “For many years the evolution of language has been seen as a disreputable topic, mired in fanciful ‘‘just so stories’’ about language origins.” https://lnkd.in/dTkGwcGB View in LinkedIn

SALTATION. “The emergence of language was a defining moment in the evolution of modern humans. It was an innovation that changed radically the character of human society.” https://lnkd.in/d_bJcG9t View in LinkedIn

THE WHY. “My own brain is to me the most unaccountable of machinery — always buzzing, humming, soaring roaring diving, and then buried in mud. And why? What’s this passion for?” (Virginia Woolf). https://lnkd.in/d58kyzRB View in LinkedIn

FRAGMENT FROM NATURE for this and next weekend deals with the challenging topic of the evolution of language. One paper creates a linguistic computer model that reveals grammatical clues; the other looks at comparative anatomy and genetics. Leaving no fossil clues, reconstructing this is difficult. Linguistic deficits in patients, comparative anatomy, and genetic studies provide clues to the evolution of language. View in LinkedIn