The film Lost in Translation features two Americans in Tokyo whose alienation is heightened not just by language difficulties (neither speaks Japanese) but also by cultural differences. Both characters arrive in Japan feeling some form of disquiet. Bill Murray's character is an actor whose career is in decline and who has come to Tokyo to film some lucrative whiskey commercials. Scarlett Johansson's character has come to Japan with her photographer husband, who leaves her in the hotel while he goes to photo shoots.

The article 'Lost in Translation' (see Nature 445, 454–455; 2007) also centred on the issue of language differences. It looked at the difficulties expatriates experience in labs where their adopted language dominates. It also emphasized some of the cultural differences such experiences cause, which can get in the way of scientific productivity, particularly publishing.

Responses to the article have seen a difference of opinion among scientists over who should be responsible for saving science from being 'lost in translation'. Santanu Dasgupta of the Department of Cell and Molecular Biology at Uppsala University in Sweden places some responsibility on journal editors and referees who “are not doing their jobs, either from laziness or parochial arrogance or self interest”. Janet Carter-Sigglow, a translator at a German research centre, says that non-native speakers should draw on professional translators like herself. And Francesco Colucci, of the Babraham Institute in Cambridge, UK, puts responsibility for communication squarely on scientists themselves — but emphasizes that everyone could benefit from understanding cultural differences better, which can't always be translated as easily as linguistic differences.

To help scientists get past barriers to publishing, Nature has launched a web page for existing and potential authors (http://www.nature.com/authors/author_services/how_write.html) that we hope will help prevent good research from being lost in translation. This and other matters are up for discussion on Nautilus, our author blog, at http://blogs.nature.com/nautilus.