From American Scientist, not just a pantomime: A review of Talking Hands: What Sign Language Reveals about the Mind by Margalit Fox and The Gestural Origin of Language by David F. Armstrong and Sherman E. Wilcox. Tracking the evolution of language: Researchers discover that irregular verbs change in a predictable manner — just like genes and living organisms. Steven Pinker caused outrage by arguing that everything from adultery to altruism has its roots in natural selection — his work on irregular verbs still provokes hate mail. We are what we say: More on The Stuff of Thought: Language as a Window into Human Nature, and more and more and more on the magic of metaphors. What the F*? A look at why we curse. Pinker knows what’s going on inside your head, jogs his way around America and Britain, swears on air, joins his partner on a tandem, and delights in using the word "gobsmacked". From Salon, Steven Pinker and Rebecca Goldstein, America's brainiest couple, confess that belonging to one of America's most reviled subcultures doesn't mean they believe scientists can explain everything.
