Tesco
English Is the Language of Science. That Isn’t Always a Good Thing
Article

English Is the Language of Science. That Isn’t Always a Good Thing

How a bias toward English­ language science can result in preventable crises, duplicated efforts and lost knowledge

Ben Panko
Smithsonian, 2017
Read the article

Read or listen offline

автоматическое преобразование текста в аудио
  • 0.5×
  • 0.75×
  • 1×
  • 1.25×
  • 1.5×
  • 1.75×
1×
автоматическое преобразование текста в аудио

Editorial Rating

8

Qualities

  • Scientific

Recommendation

When a new strain of flu jumps from birds to pigs, the next stop may be humans. Fortunately, when this happened in 2004 with the deadly strain of avian flu H5N1, Chinese scientists caught the change early. Unfortunately, no one took notice of their research, despite its vital importance. Why? Because the research was written in Chinese and published in a Chinese journal. The text wasn’t translated until 8 months later – a fatal delay for a deadly flu. This article from the Smithsonian will interest anyone concerned with the dissemination of our most vital resource: information.

Take-Aways

  • When it’s not published in English, valuable research may never see the light of day.
  • This has serious implications for scientists, policy makers, and the public.
  • Language barriers might be mitigated with more translation, language learning, and an effort to include international scientists in research reviews.

About the Author

Ben Panko is a digital science writer for Smithsonian magazine.

Comment on this summary or Начать обсуждение