How America got its name, Boston Globe, 4/7/2010
The suprising story of an obscure scholar, an adventurer’s letter, and a pun
Each July 4, as we celebrate the origins of America, we look back ritually at what happened in 1776: the war, the politics, the principles that defined our nation.
But what about the other thing that defines America: the name itself? Its story is far older and far less often told, and still offers some revealing surprises.
Brain Wiring for Human Language, Scientific American 6/12/2000
By Kristin Leutwyler
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Source: LAURA ANN PETITTO
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Scientists have long been interested how the deaf process signed languages in the brain. Understanding that activity could shed light on whether the brain harbors specialized structures for decoding linguistic patterns in general¿regardless of how they are conveyed. In fact, a new study published in Tuesday’s issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science suggests that the brain does have such wiring, challenging the idea that speech and sound are vital for human language. Laura Ann Petitto and Robert Zatorre of McGill University and their colleagues base their conclusions on a series of experiments using positron emission tomography (PET) brain scans of 11 profoundly deaf people and 10 hearing people.