Vanishing tongues and life on Mars: Books in brief

The United Nations designated 2022–2032 as the decade of Indigenous languages. Roughly 31,000 languages have been spoken throughout history, while about 7,000 are spoken today. Only around 4,000 are expected to still exist by 2100. Multilingualism is presented as essential connective tissue, comparable to biodiversity, linking human existence. A separate set of reflections considers whether humans should settle on Mars, noting major unknowns about childbirth under Martian gravity and survival for Mars-born people returning to Earth. Another perspective emphasizes that innovation requires tolerating failure, illustrated by Ignaz Semmelweis being ridiculed before later confirmation through germ theory.

"The United Nations has designated 2022-32 as the decade of Indigenous languages. A conservative estimate suggests that roughly 31,000 languages have been spoken throughout history. But of the 7,000 spoken today, only about 4,000 will still exist by 2100. Why does this matter, given the benefits of monolingualism? Because, argues journalist Sophia Smith Galer in her engaging book about ten endangered languages, "multilingualism is - like all biodiversity - a connective tissue in the grand scheme of our existence"."

"Should humans settle on Mars? Excited by this idea, biologist Scott Solomon asks astronauts and scientists about it. He speaks to a team guiding a rover across Mars, engineers examining how space radiation affects the body and field biologists considering how humans might evolve in isolation. He learns that researchers don't know how childbirth would respond to Martian gravity, or whether Mars-born people could survive visiting Earth. "For now," Solomon concludes, "I'm content to remain here with my fellow humans.""

""Failure is the price that must be paid for innovation," writes Matt Kaplan in his trenchant analysis of various scientific discoveries. "We need to start getting comfortable with that fact." While reporting on science for The Economist, Kaplan has seen many examples of apparent failure being penalized. He notes that in the mid-nineteenth century, physician Ignaz Semmelweis was ridiculed by the medical community for his unorthodox study of postpartum infection. Only later was his explanation confirmed by the germ theory of disease."

Read at Nature