I was 11 years old when I learned that I talk funny. A new teacher who didn’t share my Boston accent was surprised by the way I said “kindergarten.” She mockingly repeated my pronunciation back to me: ...

Has anyone ever poked fun at the way you talk, how you pronounce a word or phrase? For Philadelphians, it might be “wooder” “caw-fee” “bee-yoo-dee-full” or “jeet?” But all of us have some kind of ...

New book explores the history, formation, and evolution of accents, explaining how they develop from social needs and historical events. Linguist Valerie Fridland unlocks the secrets of what ...

When you throw a ball in the air, the equations of classical physics will tell you exactly what path the ball will take as it falls, and when and where it will land. But if you were to squeeze that ...

On a recent podcast, Frank Bruni had this question about President Donald Trump: “Whom or what is he going to attack next? He has bashed Taylor Swift. He just went after the pope. No beloved icon is ...

If you stop by your neighbor’s front stoop or go to that networking event or say hi to a colleague in the breakroom, you’ll almost definitely end up making boring small talk—right? The kind that makes ...

If you’re avoiding small talk or casual chats because you think they’ll be boring, you may be missing out on meaningful connections, new research finds. Subscribe to read this story ad-free Get ...

All the Latest Game Footage and Images from Universal Weirdness A 2D hand-drawn puzzle adventure that spans multiple dimensions and universes. Encounter a diverse cast of characters and unravel ...

In this wide-ranging account, linguist Fridland (Like, Literally, Dude) surveys cutting-edge sociological, psychological, and historical explanations for why accents exist and what effects they have ...

A physicist challenges the core idea of quantum mechanics, that events are truly random. He says a hidden framework of rules may influence outcomes. That’s because our current math makes quantum ...

Most people find quantum mechanics complicated and difficult to grasp. Add information theory—the math behind computing—into the mix, and it’s a real headache. But information theorists Charles H.

Dinosaurs 'He began to cry, and almost fell to the floor': The fluffy fossil that finally showed the world that birds are dinosaurs Weather 'One of the most rapid transitions that I've seen': NOAA ...