Ever had a close encounter with a rattlesnake If so you might have noticed that the sound of the rattle seemed to get more intense as you moved nearer to the viper Research reported in in Current Biology reveals that the venomous reptiles do increase their rattling rate when they think a threat is approaching This ldquo high-frequency mode rdquo can cause us to think they rsquo re closer than they are As one researcher put it ldquo The misinterpretation of distance by the listener creates a distance safety margin rdquo People can sometimes use increasing volume with harsh words [... more]

Lucy Worsley is a British historian and TV presenter Like most people in the public eye she sometimes receives nasty mail mdash in her case over a mild speech impediment that makes her R rsquo s sound like W rsquo s One person wrote this ldquo Lucy I rsquo ll be blunt Please try harder to correct your lazy speech or remove R rsquo s from your scripts mdash I couldn rsquo t sit through your TV series because it made me so annoyed Regards Darren rdquo For some people an insensitive comment like this might trigger an equally rude [... more]

Lucy Worsley is a British historian and TV presenter Like most people in the public eye she sometimes receives nasty mail mdash in her case over a mild speech impediment that makes her R rsquo s sound like W rsquo s One person wrote this ldquo Lucy I rsquo ll be blunt Please try harder to correct your lazy speech or remove R rsquo s from your scripts mdash I couldn rsquo t sit through your TV series because it made me so annoyed Regards Darren rdquo For some people an insensitive comment like this might trigger an equally rude [... more]