Month: September 2022

THE SIZE QUESTION. “Although a direct link between brain size and language is questionable (several animal species, including dolphins, have larger brains than humans but lack language), the brain size increases that occurred during human phylogeny certainly constitute a crucial aspect of our biology.” https://lnkd.in/dTkGwcGB View in LinkedIn

PROMISING FUTURE. “I conclude that comparative molecular genetics, combined with cognitive and neuroscientific investigations, offer great promise to ground discussions of language evolution at the level of specific changes in DNA during human evolution.” https://lnkd.in/dTkGwcGB View in LinkedIn

INTERDISCIPLINARY APPROACHES. “In summary, the combination of a well-established interdisciplinary field of speech science and a rich comparative database has provided a firm foundation for work on the evolution of speech, and new neural and molecular data have made this one of the most solid and exciting domains of research on the evolution of language.” https://lnkd.in/dTkGwcGB View in LinkedIn

AUTHOR. “William Tecumseh Sherman Fitch III got a macaque monkey named Emiliano to utter various sounds while subject to X-ray video recording. In a simulation, "Emiliano" said "Will you marry me?" in a recognizable manner, revealing that the anatomy of monkeys does not limit them from producing complex speech.” https://lnkd.in/dxk6d7Er View in LinkedIn

SO ENDS this second and last section on the evolution of language. Language enables conscious thought and the development of abstract concepts which have advanced the human mind enormously. As such, a sophisticated language capacity has been critical for our evolution. But since communication is a fundamental aspect of every living thing, I look forward to when we can speak worm and learn about their concepts. https://lnkd.in/dTkGwcGB View in LinkedIn

THE INNER WORLD. “The sea, the mountains, the infinite expanse of stars, the fiery depths, the darkness of the abyss—the world recorded on the pages of C.G. Jung’s Red Book is not the physical domain of the outer world, the world of common day. It is the realm where dreams and fantasy visions arise. It is the wellspring of imagination.” (1913) https://lnkd.in/dE-WPfU4 View in LinkedIn

Eggs in an open market. In Europe, chickens are raised in such a manner that refigeration is not required and eating raw eggs is not dangerous. They also have abundant uncured cheeses. View in LinkedIn

THE IMPORTANCE OF DUST. “This geometrical uncertainty will inevitably result in uncertainty about the mass of dust. Hence, dust masses quoted in papers must be treated with caution, and may be best used as a comparative measure to distinguish galaxies.” https://lnkd.in/dAkZ_ejH View in LinkedIn

BRIDGING STUDIES. “In order to determine the dust properties of high-redshift galaxies, data of the same quality that has been obtained for nearby galaxies is required.” https://lnkd.in/dAkZ_ejH View in LinkedIn

PROBING STRUCTURE. “Emission from molecular rotation and atomic fine-structure transition lines can be used to diagnose physical conditions within molecular clouds and photodissociation regions, and to trace out the velocity structure within.” https://lnkd.in/dAkZ_ejH View in LinkedIn