"DNA tells story of language Methodologically, the study’s move is elegant. Historical documents can be rich but patchy, and for many regions and eras they simply don’t exist. Genes keep a different kind of ledger. When populations intermix, they leave an imprint that persists for thousands years."

A very special paper where we did something NEW! 🔥combining a large genetic dataset 🧬, a large linguistic dataset 💬, and Bayesian multilevel logistic regressions 📈, counting the effects of areal contact (geographic constrains) 🌎. Genetic admixture explains higher levels of linguistic exchanges...

📰When populations meet, they exchange genes, but also language features. According to a new study by NCCR researchers, contact between human populations increases the resemblance between their languages to similar extents all over the world, but differently. evolvinglanguage.ch/capturing-la...

New paper! ⚡ With Gabriel Aguirre and Marcelo Sánchez, looking at patterns of blowgun types and use across societies of the world. We find areal patterns, similarities mediated by cultural connections, and specific types characterizing distinct branches of the Austronesian language tree. 🎯

@annagraff.bsky.social presenting our work on effects of isolation and contact in linguistic diversity - with a peak from population genetics! #ichl27

"Outsourcing thought: why writing must remain central to human knowledge in Higher Education". Thinking of our role at University in the age of AI - by Giorgio Iemmolo. "Protect writing as the space where knowledge emerges" osf.io/preprints/so...

I'm pleased to share this new article by @svenkasser.bsky.social, Laura Fortunato @anthrolog.bsky.social, Marc Feldman and myself. The article extends gene-culture coevolution to recognize evolutionary effects of culture arising through drift and migration. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Some facts about biological sex, genetic sex, and why it is not so clear cut as people think:

New paper on the genetic legacy of living inhabitants of the Northern Coast of Peru. With Ricardo Fujita and José Sandoval of USMP Lima,master student Lea Huber,@epifaniaarango.bsky.social,@kkshimizu1.bsky.social Genetic lineages characteristic of the region link to aDNA from local archaeo sites...

Feels like time travelling. Science and art reconstruct the life of our ancestors

New volume on the interface between languages, human history, anthropology, archaeology and (a bit of) genetics, curated by M. Robbeets and M. Hudson. A very rich table of content for everyone interested in these multidisciplinary studies of the human past. I contributed two chapters:

Our new paper is out in @science.org! By exploring the rich genetic diversity of Brazil, we show how fine-scale genomic analyses reveal that this diversity, rooted in Indigenous ancestry and centuries of complex demographic history, plays a key role in population health.

SIBE Summer School: evolution of populations at a scale. Ferrara 7-11 September. Application deadline 11 May. Travel grants available. A very nice format to learn about population genetics, conservation genomics, grant application, outreach, and networking. See you in Ferrara!

NEW PAPER: Linguistics has long debated the scientific cost of narrow sampling, but growing language endangerment makes this debate urgent. We compare studied and unstudied languages in child language acquisition to assess how narrow sampling limits our understanding doi.org/10.1162/opmi...

What defines ethnicity: culture or genetics?🧬 ERC Grantees found that two Avar cemeteries had nearly identical artifacts but distinct DNA—proving culture and genetics don’t always align!📜 👉 buff.ly/3Dbkbrr #FrontierResearch @maxplanck.de Eötvös Loránd University Austrian Academy of Sciences IAS

Recently in @pnas.org we reported first spatial transcriptomic analyses of human brain regions supporting language. Genes active in excitatory neurons & with differing laminar expression in frontal vs temporal cortex showed association with white-matter connectivity & language-related conditions...🧪

*New linguistic data release* curated by @annagraff.bsky.social. We are already cooking interesting multidisciplinary analysis with this rich and solid resource... and you should try it, too! check the paper and the documentation www.nature.com/articles/s41... @nccrlanguage.bsky.social

📣The @isle-uzh.bsky.social is now an official institute of the University of Zurich. Its mission is to deepen interdisciplinary research in the field of language evolution. The ISLE also serves as the host institution of the NCCR Evolving Language. More info⬇️ evolvinglanguage.ch/an-institute...

The Shimizu group seeks a Postdoctoral Researcher in population genomics at the University of Zurich to study genetic and language evolution. Applications are open now. More info: https://jobs.uzh.ch/job-vacancies/postdoc-in-population-genomics/40227b73-2360-4e79-8924-844e5f5ed4c0 #postdoc

Words for emotions are differently connected in human groups from various regions and language families. Emotion experiences may vary across cultures. Analyzing the diverse ways that people use language can yield insights into human cognition. An interesting read! www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

MORE JOB ALERTS! 👀 at University of Cagliari (IT), 1 year research assistant to work in BIOINFORMATICS, HUMAN GENOMIC DATA🧬from the Mediterranean Islands - here a video I made at Cagliari beach in October 😎 Bando per assegno di ricerca dirpersonale.unica.it/concorsi/?pa...

JOB ALERT📢 #postdoc position #BIOINFORMATICS and #POPGEN, in Zurich with Kentaro Shimizu and my co-supervision to work with GeLaTo database, gene-language comparisons and human+plant history! 🧬 job starting ASAP! with national project @nccrlanguage.bsky.social jobs.uzh.ch/job-vacancie...

New article with U Zurich Forensic Team led by Natasha Arora and Peter Resutik - We describe the genetic history of Walser communities in the Alps, an important historical migration contributing to the linguistic diversity of Switzerland. www.fsigenetics.com/article/S187...

Looking for reviewers before Christmas

First screening is coming! Monday16th of December, 17:00, premiere of the documentary «Finding First Peoples: the Mapuche» (66’ Language: Spanish. Subtitles: English), at the Cinema of the Natural History Museum of the University of Zurich. Registration via email [email protected]

www.youtube.com/playlist?lis... These are some guitar tunes that I made for the documentary "Finding First Peoples: the Mapuche". The movie is coming... on a screen! More info soon!

I am delighted to share our latest piece of research: ‘A global cross-cultural analysis of string figures reveals evidence of deep transmission and innovation’. This was long in the works and is by far the largest project I’ve led to date. A thread: royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...

Our paper out today in @naturehumbehav.bsky.social integrates data from large-scale genome scans of dyslexia & rhythm skills, as a novel way to investigate biological overlaps between human traits related to language & musicality. Co-led by Reyna Gordon (Vanderbilt). 🧪 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

A documentary about the ancient Chachapoya culture of Peru, talking about their legacy, history, and genetics. With Sonia Guillén, international mummy expert, and my little contribution! www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Qwc...

In our article we connect the indigenous roots of southern Chile with the history of the continent, with genetics, linguistics and anthropology - here a video abstract, with subs in EN and ES! www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJ7y...