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Observing apes to get a better understanding of humans
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Observing apes to get a better understanding of humans

Biologist and comparative psychologist Thibaud Gruber specialises in ape behaviour. By observing apes in their natural environment, in Uganda, he aims to understand what makes humans special.

Setting an example for genetic research with indigenous populations
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Setting an example for genetic research with indigenous populations

Can genetic research with indigenous populations be more ethically conducted? This is what Chiara Barbieri and her team believed when starting their work with the Mapuche community, one of the 10 recognized indigenous groups of Chile. In a recent paper, the group reported on this experience to share insights and promote transparent and inclusive science.

Image competitions from the NCCR and the SNSF are now open
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Image competitions from the NCCR and the SNSF are now open

Put your research in the spotlight! Both the NCCR Evolving Language and the SNSF are inviting researchers to submit their images to enter the competition! We look forward to seeing your work!

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Exploring the past, present and future of language

The Swiss National Centre of Competence in Research (NCCR) Evolving Language is a nationwide interdisciplinary research consortium bringing together research groups from the humanities, from language and computer science, the social sciences, and the natural sciences at an unprecedented level. Together, we aim at solving one of humanity’s great mysteries: What is language? How did our species develop the ca­pa­city for linguistic expression, for processing language in the brain, and for con­sist­ently passing down new variations to the next generation? How will our capacity for language change in the face of digital com­munication and neuroengineering?

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  • Ivani, J. K., & Bickel, B. (2023, October 17). Databases for comparative syntactic research. arXiv. https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2310.11187
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NCCR Evovling Language research groupsMap

Evolving Language is led by Balthasar Bickel (Department of Comparative Language Science, UZH), Daphné Bavelier (Cognitive Neuroscience group, UNIGE) and Klaus Zuberbühler (Institute of Biology, University of Neuchâtel). Over 30 research groups across Switzerland are taking part in this NCCR, from 9 different institutions as well as partners in industry (Google AI, Sonova) and public organizations.

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