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posted by janrinok on Monday January 02 2017, @01:44AM   Printer-friendly
from the brush-up-your-esperanto dept.

English is now considered the common language, or 'lingua franca', of global science. All major scientific journals seemingly publish in English, despite the fact that their pages contain research from across the globe.

However, a new study suggests that over a third of new scientific reports are published in languages other than English, which can result in these findings being overlooked - contributing to biases in our understanding.

As well as the international community missing important science, language hinders new findings getting through to practitioners in the field say researchers from the University of Cambridge.

They argue that whenever science is only published in one language, including solely in English, barriers to the transfer of knowledge are created.

The Cambridge researchers call on scientific journals to publish basic summaries of a study's key findings in multiple languages, and universities and funding bodies to encourage translations as part of their 'outreach' evaluation criteria.


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  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by TheRaven on Monday January 02 2017, @09:39AM

    by TheRaven (270) on Monday January 02 2017, @09:39AM (#448456) Journal

    The Bible is a well-written work of fiction

    Please read The Bible before making this kind of claim. The vast majority of it is terribly written (there's a reason why most movies and TV shows made about The Bible focus on a couple of dozen stories from a book containing hundreds). A great many of them have really bad morals (some examples: it's okay to keep slaves, as long as they're from a different tribe. The best way of protecting guests from rapists is to offer them your daughters. If someone worships the wrong god, it's probably best to slaughter their entire family. You probably get the point).

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 02 2017, @04:27PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 02 2017, @04:27PM (#448547)

    There's also problems with continuity and characters. There's father and son... but no mother. Father has fallout-free nukes somewhere in orbit, but prefers to manipulate and social engineer his will into being, instead of negotiating with political leaders directly....wtf? Father's personality and character is changed to fit the narrative all the time. And in the second part... main character is a _human haploid_, on a quest to kill himself, given to him by Father? And its it is described as "saving mankind", but all he does is tell tall tales about his Pa, alienate local religious and political leadership and violate laws of thermodynamics, in a pre-industrial setting.... Ant that is just characters, the technology of the Bible is equally... incoherent. Noah's ark, Walls of Jericho, walking on water, water into wine, Moses's snake staff... Most of these things are so complicated, even Iain M. Banks's Culture would have problems implementing them as they are described, lol.

    And then you find out that all main characters are One character with several names, where the longest is 216 letters long... Is he called Adonai, or is he called Hashem or is it El or El Shaddai or is it YHVH or YH or what? None of it makes any sense as a book.

  • (Score: 1) by lcall on Monday January 02 2017, @04:38PM

    by lcall (4611) on Monday January 02 2017, @04:38PM (#448552)

    That is definitely not how I understand the Bible, including the story of Lot and his family. The Book of Mormon etc provide important clarifications, and together I personally find them magnificent. The Bible has gone through many centuries of translation, where sometimes some things can be lost or misunderstood. Whether one is a believer or not, the Bible's contribution to world culture is indisputable. Yes some people have done bad things in the name of religion (which is horrible), but even aside from the nature of God and His plan for our eternal growth and happiness, some core teachings include things like honesty and the Golden Rule. The 10 commandments make a good basis for a civil society. These works provide multiple witnesses that life extends far beyond the grave. The belief that we are individually accountable for our actions, therefore we should be honest and kind even when nobody is watching, is also extremely important for a civil society.

    Now if you are offended (I hope not) or want to have a long debate, etc etc, oh well, it's been done before, so if you want replies to stuff like that my comments in another thread are available: https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=16/10/04/0146220 [soylentnews.org]

    • (Score: 1) by lcall on Monday January 02 2017, @04:48PM

      by lcall (4611) on Monday January 02 2017, @04:48PM (#448557)

      (Sorry, I'm tired & making mistakes, not previewing as I should today. For the subject I meant "not", not "now".)

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 02 2017, @08:56PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 02 2017, @08:56PM (#448645)

        The Book of Mormon etc provide important clarifications,

        Hey, Soylentils! Our very own personal Mormon missionary is back! Whoopee!

    • (Score: 2) by TheRaven on Tuesday January 03 2017, @11:58AM

      by TheRaven (270) on Tuesday January 03 2017, @11:58AM (#448859) Journal

      The Book of Mormon etc provide important clarifications

      Which version? The LDS Church releases a new revision every few years and there have been huge changes between the original and the newer editions - black people have souls in the latest editions!

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      • (Score: 1) by lcall on Tuesday January 03 2017, @02:43PM

        by lcall (4611) on Tuesday January 03 2017, @02:43PM (#448910)

        No. The Church has been very open about what has changed (grammar/spelling etc to correct printing errors & the like since the original, to conform better to the earliest materials), and I've been reading from these books my whole life (I am a grandparent). Please specify the before & after text and your sources. I have a somewhat older edition, and they are also online I'm sure.

        • (Score: 1) by lcall on Tuesday January 03 2017, @06:59PM

          by lcall (4611) on Tuesday January 03 2017, @06:59PM (#449016)

          Also, to be clear, all people regardless of color always had souls.

          Please let's all evaluate ourselves & try to keep the level of conversation above hit & run trolling, or cheap statements that bash others; let's build instead of tearing down. We can do it, even when we disagree deeply.

          Best wishes.