Language is an essential part of human communication, allowing people to express ideas, emotions, imagination and much more. But even while speaking the same language, no two people sound exactly ...

While Star Trek’s transporter is hard to imagine — perfect matter movement across vast distances with no equipment on one end — it may not be the most far-fetched piece of tech on the Enterprise.

Language changes all the time. Words get new meanings. New words get made up. I talked about it with my friend Rich Zack. He’s an insect scientist at Washington State University. He does taxonomy.

Corrections & clarifications: An earlier version of this story contained inaccurate or incomplete facts about the history of language. Language is an essential part of human communication, allowing ...