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Nature 426, 391-392 (27 November 2003) | doi:10.1038/426391a

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Linguistics: Trees of life and of language

David B. Searls1

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The dating of ancient languages by a technique called glottochronology is undergoing a revival, stimulated by the computational and statistical methods used to tease out evolutionary relationships in biology.

This year marks a half-century since the publication1 of a famous discovery that, by elucidating a remarkable mechanism for preserving and conveying information, led to a better understanding of our human heritage. This feat was performed by a partnership between an unconventional newcomer from a different field and a Cambridge scholar with specialist knowledge.

  1. Bioinformatics Division, Genetics Research, GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals, 709 Swedeland Road, PO Box 1539, King of Prussia, Pennsylvania 19406, USA.
    Email: David_B_Searls@gsk.com