When English speakers say "rose" and Chinese speakers say "玫瑰," do they mean the same thing? A Peking University team led by Professor Bi Yanchao explored this question using word embeddings from 53 languages, behavioral ratings from speakers of eight languages and exploratory multilingual brain imaging data. Published in Nature Communications, the study shows that word meanings are organized along shared neurocognitive dimensions, while differences across languages are associated with climate.
Japan is experiencing historically high numbers of foreigners. Its population is shrinking, and its workforce is aging, driving foreign labor to historic levels.
Humans are the only species known to use fully symbolic language: a system capable of expressing abstract ideas, imaginary worlds and endless combinations of meaning. But how did we get there?
Young people with the most connections to other suspected offenders of any age are almost five times more likely to carry knives than the average youth suspect, according to a new analysis of more than 200,000 U.K. police records. This top 5% of "super-connected" children aged 10–18 are almost three times more likely to commit violent crime, seven times more likely to commit robberies and nine times more likely to be involved in organized crime than the wider youth suspect population.
The number of conflicts between states continued to increase sharply in 2025 and has now reached the highest level since World War II. At the same time, the Uppsala Conflict Data Program (UCDP) at Uppsala University registered a record total number of armed conflicts.
The June 2026 National Trends in Disability Employment (nTIDE) report reveals a large increase in job-seeking among people with disabilities, signaling that more individuals are entering the labor force as economic pressure intensifies. This finding aligns with last month's nTIDE forecast that rising prices would push more people with disabilities to seek employment, while progress in employment access continues.
Protected bike lanes increase Citi Bike ridership in New York City, but painted bike lanes and sharrows do not show a statistically significant causal effect on ridership after accounting for confounding factors, according to a new study from researchers at NYU's Tandon School of Engineering published this week in npj Sustainable Mobility and Transport.
Over the last decade, podcasts have become big business, with more than a fifth of UK adults listening to podcasts each week. The format particularly resonates with men, who are more likely than women to identify as podcast fans. Men are also overrepresented as podcast hosts.
From the air, you see it only through the constant jolt, tilt, and shudder of the low-flying Cessna aircraft. The landscape of the Llanos de Moxos, northern Bolivia, appears as a disconnected patchwork of open grassland savannahs, forest islands, and lakes.
Sports in the United States look very different than they did when the nation was founded 250 years ago, according to Mark Dyreson, professor of kinesiology and history at Penn State. But one thing has remained constant—sport has played a vital role in shaping and reflecting the country's culture and values, he said.
Few would have predicted Morocco's success at the 2022 Fifa World Cup. Heading into the tournament, they were ranked 22nd in the world and had never progressed beyond the round of 16.
A new study by Mannheim Business Administration professor Hartmut Höhle examines the reactions of actual victims of the Cambridge Analytica scandal on Facebook over a longer period. Its key finding is that, despite being affected by data fraud, users remain on the platform.
Big Talks for Little People, an innovative child mental health support program, has helped alleviate bullying that had been reported by students in Out of School Hours Care (OSHC), according to a new study conducted by Flinders University researchers.
Amid growing public concern about the radicalization of young people, there is a widespread misconception that radicalization logically and inevitably progresses to violence.
Luxury brands have increasingly embraced internet memes in their social media advertising campaigns. For example, Gucci's #TFWGucci campaign demonstrated how luxury brands can incorporate memes into their digital communication strategies to capture consumers' attention. Memes—digital content that spreads rapidly through sharing, imitation and adaptation across online communities—have become a popular way for brands to engage consumers.
The words "tick-tock," "hiss" and "screech" are examples of onomatopoeia because they imitate the sounds they represent: the rhythmic ticking of a clock; an angry cat, or a slowly deflating bike tire; a high-pitched scream. Onomatopoeia is a type of sound symbolism.
Est-il vraiment nécessaire de se doucher tous les jours ? Entre les normes de notre société et la réalité médicale, le juste équilibre est parfois difficile à trouver.Cette semaine dans Futura Santé, on va aborder une question d'hygiène quotidienne qui suscite pas mal de débats, même parmi les...
Magnetic fields may be the hidden force bringing both newborn stars and giant black holes together. New computer simulations suggest that magnetic fields play a crucial role in helping pairs of young stars form. The findings could explain why binary star systems are so common throughout the Milky Way and may even offer clues about [...]
Incorporating more plant-based proteins could help people save on their grocery bill, but new research has found that it's not so simple when it comes to choices at the supermarket. Simon Fraser University researchers peeked into more than 87,000 grocery carts in Canada and Finland to study how much price influenced the type of protein people bought: animal-based or plant-based. Researchers discovered that while the price had to be right, having a variety of options also played a role.