What does the word “meme” have to do with evolutionary biology? And why do we call it “Spanish flu” when it was never Spanish? Science Diction is a podcast about words—and the science stories within ...

Science Diction is a bite-sized podcast about words—and the science stories behind them. Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts, and sign up for our newsletter. Over the past year, you’ve sent us ...

Repeat after me: The sixth sick sheik’s sixth sheep’s sick. Try again. Now faster: The sixth sick sheik’s sixth sheep’s sick. Tongue twisters aren’t just hard on the eyes, they’re also an important ...

In a 1530 epic poem, Italian physician and poet Hieronymus Fracastorius coined 'Syphilis' as the name of his poem's protagonist, a shepherd afflicted with the dreaded disease. Medical historian Dr.

Diction is an act of speaking in a distinctive way, the choice of picking words, pronouncing correctly, and the level of articulation. Speaking in the right diction and pronouncing each word according ...

THE word “meme” wasn’t created to describe things that spread all over the internet. Rather, evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins coined the term when he was hunting for an idea-focused counterpart ...

More and more parents want their children to learn the correct manner in which English words are pronounced earlier enough. I often meet parents of children as young as two or three who say that ...

Each episode of Science Diction takes a word or phrase, and with the help of historians, authors, etymologists, and scientists, serves up language with a side of science. It’s been wonderful to have ...