)Global concerns from climate to nuclear proliferation weigh heavily as we begin 2017. So a pair of stories about the international flow of information and standardization caught my eye. First up, a study on language barriers in science communication. Major journals are all in English, or maybe a journal needs to be in English to have enough readership to be considered major. Scientists in many countries are expected to publish in English regardless of their native language, in order to be part of the international community of their discipline. Still, plenty of research results are published exclusively in other languages. Being familiar with that literature can be important, especially when making decisions with global implications and which require local implementation in the context of unique environments. Automated translation may be helpful, although high average accuracy of translation may not be adequate when the details matter just as much as the gist. I’m personally curious if the high-level differences between languages (e.g. expressions of tense) affect not only what is reported and how, but also which kinds of research questions get asked in the first place.
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