A study reveals that babies would much rather listen to an adult trying to mimic a baby’s voice. Researchers postulate that babies prefer baby talk—characterised by higher pitch, slower speed, and exaggerated pronunciation—because it helps prepare them for speech. Hearing how an infant-like voice produces sound seems to help babies understand how to reproduce the sounds on their own, making it easier to acquire speech. Read full article here
Science
‘Ghostly’ neutrinos provide new path to study protons
In groundbreaking research, an international collaboration of scientists from the University of Rochester have used a beam of neutrinos to measure the size and shape of the protons that make up the nuclei of atoms. This feat, once thought impossible, provides scientists with a new way of looking at the small components of an atom’s nucleus and opens up a wealth of new information about the structure of an atom’s nucleus and the dynamics of the forces that affect neutrino interactions. The researchers solved the challenge of harnessing neutrinos in large numbers by using a neutrino detector containing a target of both hydrogen and carbon atoms, and over nine years of data collection at Fermilab’s accelerator. Read full article here
Merv
March 25, 2023
