No, It's Not About Talking Mice Reader Ranald Hay sends along an link to a WaPo report on newly published research concerning a mutation that may have been important in the development of human speech and language. This article is a little fuzzy on the distinction between speech and language, but a check of the Nature Science Update version sheds a tad more light. (A mistake in this gene in humans causes both speech and grammar defects; the gene is likely to have a regulatory function.)

Unfortunately I don't have a subscription to Nature, so I'll have to go out in the real world to track down the paper. Thanks for the heads-up, Ranald.

UPDATE: See also this report from New Scientist. They also have the goods on a successful cross-species testes transplant, if you're interested.

Posted by Moira Breen at August 14, 2002 01:51 PM