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Past Shows
September 11, 2004
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Language and Thought
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The Piraha live without numbers, courtesy Peter Gordon
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There's a long standing debate in psychological circles. Does the language we speak influence the way we think? If you don't have a word for something in your native language, does that mean you can't imagine the concept?
Dr. Lera Boroditsky, from Stanford University, is convinced language does influence thought.She's looked at how speakers of different languages describe objects and found their native tongue influences what they're thinking.
Dr. Peter Gordon from Columbia University agrees. He's studied the Piraha people of Brazil. They're a tribe that lacks a counting system. He's found they aren't able to accurately recognise quantities of objects above three or four, and blames this on their lack of numbers.
Dr. Lila Gleitman, an emeritus professor from the University of Pennsylvania, disagrees. She's found that no matter what language you speak, you're able to come up with all the same concepts and ideas, and that language doesn't limit thought.
Dr. Susan Hespos, from Vanderbilt University, falls somewhere in between. She's studied five-month-old children and shown they don't need language to understand some complicated concepts. However she agrees that language can modify our thought patterns as we grow older.
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Owl Dung Fishing
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A Burrowing Owl, courtesy Ronald G. Wolff |
Home decorating is something most humans like to do. And we're not alone. Many in the animal kingdom do the same thing. But the choice of accessory made by the burrowing owl may seem a little odd. They like to adorn their nests with animal dung. While this may seem like a strange choice, for the owls it serves a very practical purpose. Dr. Doug Levey a professor at the University of Florida in Gainesville recently demonstrated the owls use the dung to lure in one of their favorite foods; the dung beetle.
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Cancer Blood Test
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The future of breast cancer screening? |
Because of the progressive nature of breast cancer, it's important to monitor patients for changes in how the cancer is spreading through their bodies. But the tests we have available are not very sensitive, and aren't pleasant for the women undergoing the procedures. Now Dr. Harriette Kahn, a pathologist at Sunnybrook and Women's College Health Centre in Toronto, has come up with a new test that may get around some of these problems. It's a simple blood test that can detect very low levels of cancer cells circulating in the blood. She hopes the test will allow doctors to detect breast cancer earlier, and also prescribe better treatments for anyone suffering from the disease.
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ET, Mail Home!
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Voyager's Golden Disc, was this the best way to contact aliens? courtesy NASA |
In the movie, "E.T" the alien in the title role contacted his homeworld with a radio transmission. But according to Dr. Christopher Rose, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at Rutgers University, that may not be the best way to get in touch with another planet. Rather than sending a radio signal, he suggests we should be writing letters instead. Or at least putting our messages onto probes we fire off into the sky. While it's slow, he says it's a more energy efficient way of talking to other worlds.
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Question of the Week: How do Sunflowers track the Sun?
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This week Sam Beardsley of Wingham, Ontario asked, "How does a sunflower change position to face the sun, and does a Venus Flytrap do something similar to snap shut and catch flies?". Dr. Roger Horton from the University of Guelph gave us an answer to this botanical query.
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