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Researchers have demonstrated how Apple's use of a widely adopted data protection model could expose individuals to privacy attacks. By investigating Apple's use of the model, called local differential privacy (LDP), the researchers found that individuals' preferred emoji skin tone and political leanings could be inferred from the company's data.

Students who study Virgil's Aeneid at school find it significantly more engaging than other 'high-prestige' literature, even though they only learn tiny fragments of the text, research suggests. Ultimately, if this is high-level poetry that students actually like, perhaps we ought to be finding ways to give them the chance to do it Frances Foster The finding comes from a limited study with three groups of 15 and 16-year-old state school students taking Latin GCSE, and raises the possibility that there may be a case for expanding ancient literature's use in the wider curriculum.

In languages spoken around the world, words describing rough surfaces are highly likely to feature a 'trilled /r/' sound - a linguistic pattern that stretches back over 6,000 years, a new study reveals. Language scientists first analysed words for 'rough' and 'smooth' in a worldwide sample of 332 spoken languages - discovering a strong link between the sounds of speech and the sense of touch, which has influenced the structure of modern languages.

Most people around the world agree that the made-up word 'bouba' sounds round in shape, and the made-up word 'kiki' sounds pointy - a discovery that may help to explain how spoken languages develop, according to a new study. Language scientists have discovered that this effect exists independently of the language that a person speaks or the writing system that they use, and it could be a clue to the origins of spoken words.

The 'missing link' that helped our ancestors to begin communicating with each other through language may have been iconic sounds, rather than charades-like gestures - giving rise to the unique human power to coin new words describing the world around us, a new study reveals. It was widely believed that, in order to get the first languages off the ground, our ancestors first needed a way to create novel signals that could be understood by others, relying on visual signs whose form directly resembled the intended meaning.

Discover some of the best strategies for successful revision in this article by English Literature student Evie Robinson, who shares her top tips for acing late summer exam season. Exam seasons can be super stressful, and it's very easy to feel overwhelmed - but there are plenty of things you can do to make this mountain far easier to climb.

The mystery behind a painting by a renowned French post-impressionist may have been revealed by new research that has unearthed secrets from his past. Research by our School of Modern Languages and Cultures has given us a new understanding of Pierre Bonnard's relationship with his wife and model Marthe Bonnard, and explains some of the negative stories about her after her death.

Discover some of the best strategies for successful revision in this article by English Literature student Evie Robinson, who shares her top tips for acing exam season here. It's that time of year again. Exam seasons can be super stressful - especially this one! - and it's very easy to feel overwhelmed but there are plenty of things you can do to make this mountain far easier to climb.

This week we catch up with Neuroscience PhD student Claudia, who shares with us her favourite musical in London, experience meeting fellow Neurology scientists in Paris and top spot in the city for finding inspiration to write. What are you studying, why are you interested in this subject and what do you plan to do in the future?  I am currently doing a PhD in Neuroscience researching Alzheimer's disease.

Donald Trump used Twitter effectively to promote his campaign, communicate policy goals and attack opponents as part of a systematic campaign ahead of the 2016 US Presidential elections - a new study reveals. Detailed analysis of the US President's tweets from 2009 to 2018 has also allowed researchers to estimated the point in time when the former Apprentice host actually decided to run for the Presidency.

New research from the University of Birmingham suggests Benjamin Franklin, one of the Founding Fathers of the United States, could have contributed to a forgotten shipwreck narrative. Based on studies of Franklin's early life as a printer, Dr Hazel Wilkinson claims there are clues which provide information about Benjamin Franklin's activities during his first visit to London as an eighteen-year-old printer.

A University of Bristol academic appears to have succeeded where countless cryptographers, linguistics scholars and computer programs have failed - by cracking the code of the 'world's most mysterious text', the Voynich manuscript. Although the purpose and meaning of the manuscript had eluded scholars for over a century, it took Research Associate Dr. Gerard Cheshire two weeks, using a combination of lateral thinking and ingenuity, to identify the language and writing system of the famously inscrutable document.

The famed "bloodless death" of a landmark British poet in the Great War has been investigated by experts from the Humanities and Sciences a century after his death, in a new project undertaken at Cardiff University. Biographical and critical works about Edward Thomas (1878 - 1917) often refer to his "bloodless death", a story that emerged following his death aged just 39 at the Battle of Arras on Easter Monday in 1917.

Picture overload hinders children learning new words in storybooks, study finds Less is more when it comes to helping children learn new vocabulary from picture books, according to a new study. While publishers look to produce ever more colourful and exciting texts to entice buyers, University of Sussex psychologists have shown that having more than one illustration per page results in poorer word learning among pre-schoolers.

A new, historically accurate portrait of the most admired and revered romantic leading man in literary history, Fitzwilliam Darcy, has been unveiled for the first time, following new research co-led by QMUL's Professor Amanda Vickery. The new portraits paint a very different picture of the literary heartthrob when compared to modern day TV depictions, portrayed by Hollywood actors such as Colin Firth, Elliot Cowan and Matthew MacFadyen.

Women's expectations now more closely match reality and as a result these more closely match the expectations of men. Paradox of "contented female worker" has vanished as there is no longer a job satisfaction gap between men and women. Female job satisfaction has dramatically declined in Britain since the early 1990s and a gender gap no longer exists, meaning that the paradox of the "contented female worker" has vanished, new research from Lancaster University Management School reveals.

A new online schools resource and app, all about metaphor, have been launched by researchers at the School of Critical Studies at the University of Glasgow. The materials aim to "open the minds" of secondary school pupils, "put ideas into their heads" and "build up" their knowledge of the English language - metaphorically speaking.

A new Oxford-led research programme will explore the crucial role of creativity in the use of languages and investigate more creative forms of language learning, providing a forum for universities, schools and other partners to forge a new and more cohesive identity  for modern foreign languages (MFL).

A web-based machine language system solves crossword puzzles far better than commercially-available products, and may help machines better understand language. Despite recent progress in AI, problems involving language understanding are particularly difficult. Felix Hill Researchers have designed a web-based platform which uses artificial neural networks to answer standard crossword clues better than existing commercial products specifically designed for the task.