Linguists filter languages for sound before meaning.

Bilingual people switch off one language to avoid speaking double Dutch. By first sounding out words in their brain’s dictionary, they may stop one tongue from interfering with another.

Those fluent in two languages rarely mix them up. They switch between language filters that oust foreign words, Thomas Munte of Otto von Guericke University in Magdeburg, Germany, and his team suggest 1 .

Their

The Scotia Sea, located between the Antarctic and the tip of South America, acts like a ‘blender’ on the very cold ocean waters that influence global ocean circulation patterns and ultimately climate, according to new research from the University of East Anglia (UEA) and published today (28 February) in the international journal Nature.

The research, carried out by Dr Karen Heywood, Dr David Stevens and Dr Alberto Naveira Garabato, shows that the dense, cold waters formed in the Weddell Sea

The research group Multimedia Lab of the Ghent University (Belgium) succeeded in putting the first MPEG-21 application online. MPEG-21 technology is the most recently developed technology for multimedia applications. After the MPEG-1, -2, -4, and MPEG-7 standards, MPEG-21 is currently considered to be one of the most promising new standard in the field of multimedia systems and applications.

The research activities of Multimedia Lab at Ghent University, Belgium (Department of Electron

Women are seven times more likely than men to admit to a partner that they have a sexually acquired infection, reveals research in Sexually Transmitted Infections. The findings were irrespective of age or type of infection.

The findings are based on three population surveys of sexual behaviour carried out in France in the early to mid 1990s. Two of the surveys comprised a total of around 7000 adults; the third dealt with just over 6000 adolescents from 15 upwards. All those surveyed were ask

Europe is one step ahead of the US in the development of a new type of semiconductor structure consisting of incredibly thin nano threads. A Swedish team headed by Professor Lars Samuelson at the LTH, the Lund Institute of Technology, Lund University, has taken the lead in this field of research. “In nano threads, we can combine semiconductor materials that no one has previously been able to grow. This results in entirely new electrical properties: a single electron can be monitored and made to run a

The issue of insulin-dependent diabetes has long been discussed. No wonder, as the problem concerns more than 5% of the world population. However, despite the enormous efforts and funds spent on its solution, the scientists so far have failed to replace the injections with pills. The difficulty is that insulin (like any other polypeptide) gets easily destroyed under the influence of proteolytic enzymes in the stomach and small intestines. The scientists have tried a variety of means: insulin plasters