tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37163313210115989362024-03-20T00:27:35.779-07:00Sophie HardachSophie Hardachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02571027538201714160noreply@blogger.comBlogger35125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3716331321011598936.post-2027517293174758192022-10-29T02:50:00.002-07:002022-10-29T02:50:43.435-07:00Confession with Blue Horses / Unser geteilter Sommer - Neuerscheinung! Confession with Blue Horses gibt es jetzt auch auf Deutsch - als 'Unser geteilter Sommer', in einer wundervollen Übersetzung von Ulrike Sterblich. Es war wirklich schön und bewegend, die Geschichte bei ihrer sprachlichen Heimkehr zu begleiten und durch Ulrike Sterblichs elegante Übersetzung nochmal ganz neu zu erleben.Sophie Hardachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02571027538201714160noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3716331321011598936.post-60175323854026750552022-10-29T02:38:00.002-07:002022-10-29T02:38:31.687-07:00The messages that survived civilisation's collapse How a young scribe's homework helped unlock an entire lost civilisation - and what he and other writers from the very distant past can teach us about everlasting scripts and languages. With some excellent advice from leading experts in decipherment and ancient languages on how to craft your own immortal message. One of them even made an actual clay tablet for this feature!Sophie Hardachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02571027538201714160noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3716331321011598936.post-2514421711368096722022-10-29T02:32:00.001-07:002022-10-29T02:32:48.917-07:00BBC Family Tree (new series) For the past year, I've been editing Family Tree, a BBC series of online features about the latest global research on families, parenting and children's health and development. It's been an absolute delight to commission and work with so many talented writers, and shine a light on fascinating scientific insights and discoveries from around the world.Check out some of our stories on the Sophie Hardachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02571027538201714160noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3716331321011598936.post-36347863169040824212020-09-19T12:46:00.000-07:002020-09-19T12:46:09.047-07:00In Quarantine, Kids Pick Up Parents’ Mother Tongues (NYT feature)All over the world, families have been forced to stay at home because of the COVID-19 pandemic. What does that mean for homes where several languages are spoken? My New York Times feature on children switching languages during the pandemic.If you enjoyed this feature, you may also like one I wrote for the NYT last year, about newborns copying the melodies of the mother tongue they heard while Sophie Hardachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02571027538201714160noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3716331321011598936.post-51973819062044202632019-11-01T03:51:00.002-07:002019-11-01T03:52:36.991-07:00"Art was our lifeline": the GDR's creative rebels
Painted photo of Cornelia Schleime, taken by Gabriele Stötzer, 1981
Gabriele Stötzer is a really remarkable artist and writer who deserves to be much more widely known. I interviewed her for this piece in the Economist on the GDR's rebel artists, who created incredibly bold, funny, provocative, fearless art that challenged the surveillance state.
Stötzer was imprisoned as a young Sophie Hardachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02571027538201714160noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3716331321011598936.post-68948298821690410552019-05-18T02:59:00.001-07:002019-05-18T02:59:41.714-07:00The kids who smuggled out an East German defector
It's not often that you get to revisit your little hometown, speak to a group of people who grew up around you, and stumble across a story involving a Stasi file, a bugged Trabant, an East German defector and a bunch of teenagers on a school trip. And then have someone make it into a podcast with brilliant 1980s tunes.
This feature for the Guardian took me back to the 1980s, and stirred upSophie Hardachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02571027538201714160noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3716331321011598936.post-5215864006031893702019-03-20T04:49:00.000-07:002019-03-27T04:34:03.963-07:00Teach yourself to echolocate
Awakening your hidden senses can be a life-changing experience. It can help you compensate for the loss of other senses (like vision), improve your confidence and everyday safety, or even just enrich your experience of the world. Researching and writing this feature for BBC Future on the power of our hidden senses really made me appreciate the untapped resources that lie within all of us.
Sophie Hardachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02571027538201714160noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3716331321011598936.post-89536834051326236712019-02-27T11:52:00.002-08:002019-03-20T05:06:28.740-07:00"Like ear wax": On language and the senses
My latest for BBC Future, on how the language you speak reflects the senses you use. It was a really fun piece to report and write, but one thing left me baffled: apparently, English speakers (but not speakers of other languages!) consistently confuse sour, salty and bitter. First question: Why? And also, what about multi-heritage, multi-lingual English speakers? And also: "like ear wax"??
Sophie Hardachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02571027538201714160noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3716331321011598936.post-53244044886226475032018-12-15T03:36:00.001-08:002019-03-20T05:07:21.383-07:00Saving the fertility of children with cancer
This feature for the Guardian Weekend magazine feels like a fitting article to end the year on. Fertility preservation is about the future, about uncertainty, about hope - and about the belief that given enough time and resources, scientists can find solutions to problems that may seem unsurmountable right now. Here's to a happy and healthy 2019.
'It gives you hope': the fight to save the Sophie Hardachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02571027538201714160noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3716331321011598936.post-54968229925293930232018-12-14T06:08:00.002-08:002018-12-14T06:08:46.541-08:00Unlocking the secrets of the ancient world
Can machines help us translate the world's oldest written language? Ancient Mesopotamia has left us more texts than ancient Rome, Egypt and Greece combined, some say. About half a million Mesopotamian clay tablets carrying cuneiform script, the world's oldest writing system, have been excavated, detailing life at the dawn of history. But relatively few can read this script and the languages Sophie Hardachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02571027538201714160noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3716331321011598936.post-59145377379577439002018-10-27T03:14:00.002-07:002018-10-27T03:25:27.412-07:00What's the best age to learn a language?
Can you lose your native language? And what's the best age to learn a second (or third, or fourth) language? Here are two features I wrote for BBC Future about languages and language-learning. Interestingly, the feature on losing your mother tongue seemed to resonate with a lot of people - I've had fascinating exchanges with rusty native speakers from around the world. But I also enjoyed Sophie Hardachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02571027538201714160noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3716331321011598936.post-26067128320907975172018-04-19T04:25:00.001-07:002018-10-27T03:25:48.145-07:00Basel: A trip to LSD's birthplace
For the Guardian - a city profile of Basel for the 75th anniversary of Albert Hofmann's accidental discovery of LSD. Hofmann was a chemist researching the effects of a fungus that had been used for a variety of medicinal purposes since medieval times, for example to bring on labour (and also for abortions). Hofmann was trying to find a drug to treat fatigue, but then... well, read the articleSophie Hardachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02571027538201714160noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3716331321011598936.post-42018564531465107082018-03-28T04:01:00.002-07:002018-03-28T04:01:53.581-07:00The secret world of babies
My son's first assignment! We visited the Babylab at Birkbeck and found out about their latest research for BBC Future. Sophie Hardachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02571027538201714160noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3716331321011598936.post-83222840061785469782018-02-28T03:47:00.001-08:002018-02-28T03:47:25.300-08:00How you talk to your child changes their brain
Most parents know that talking to their child is important. But a new study has revealed that it’s how you talk to your child that really matters for their brain growth. Read more about chatting and cognitive development in my latest story for the World Economic Forum.Sophie Hardachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02571027538201714160noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3716331321011598936.post-78985183039216808632018-02-06T09:17:00.000-08:002018-02-06T09:34:44.392-08:00Why speaking more than one language can boost economic growth
My latest piece for the World Economic Forum: multilingualism is good for the economy, researchers have found.
Countries that actively nurture different languages reap a range of
rewards, from more successful exports to a more innovative workforce. (And speaking more than one language actually boosts your earning power, as one study showed - even if you don't need your additional Sophie Hardachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02571027538201714160noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3716331321011598936.post-60771089555952420892017-05-26T10:14:00.001-07:002017-05-26T10:14:57.815-07:00Charlotte Salomon Centenary
This year marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of Charlotte Salomon, the Berliner artist who created Leben? Oder Theater? ('Life? Or Theatre?') - a painted memoir that tells the story of her life in more than a thousand gouaches.
Salomon painted the wonderfully strange, moving and beautiful work in her early twenties, while she was hiding from the Nazis in southern France. Not long Sophie Hardachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02571027538201714160noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3716331321011598936.post-76717900591104276982017-03-22T04:47:00.000-07:002017-03-22T04:47:35.363-07:00Why Constable's Rainbow May Carry a Hidden Message
A mystery surrounding one of John Constable's most emotionally-charged
landscapes may finally have been solved – by a meteorologist.
I always enjoy writing about art and science, and this feature for BBC Britain was particularly fun. Who knew that Constable was really into rainbow science? That rainbows are a bit like sun dials? And that Constable was plagued by self-doubt and never Sophie Hardachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02571027538201714160noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3716331321011598936.post-43862656791244981122017-01-13T08:34:00.000-08:002017-01-13T08:36:22.626-08:00Populism Explained (by a Neuroscientist)
I interviewed Dr. Molly Crockett, a behavioural psychologist,
on the destructive, addictive urge to punish - a phenomenon known as
"costly punishment" - and how it's linked to the rise of populism. The
bad news is that each act of retribution makes it more likely that the
person will do it again... that's the addictive part.
Also, "one speculation is that this destructive impulse to Sophie Hardachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02571027538201714160noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3716331321011598936.post-55841861670755178772016-06-22T08:56:00.001-07:002016-06-22T08:56:34.665-07:00Growing human bones from stem cells
Nina Tandon is one of the scientists working on growing human bones from stem cells - a new technique that could replace synthetic implants and conventional grafts. I interviewed her for the World Economic Forum's blog series on ten leading female scientists.
"I'd like to be able to say that if you're born with congenital defects,
you don't have to be consigned to a lifetime of Sophie Hardachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02571027538201714160noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3716331321011598936.post-5929453464717834872016-06-22T08:41:00.002-07:002016-06-22T08:55:23.180-07:00How your garden could power your wifi
This is another science Q&A I did for for the World Economic Forum - on how you can tap the roots of growing plants to generate power.
"Our approach doesn't force you to decide between growing food and
growing fuel," says Marjolein Helder, one of the researchers working on this. "For example, you could use the same paddy to grow rice and
produce electricity."Sophie Hardachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02571027538201714160noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3716331321011598936.post-67680501539086636392016-06-16T12:05:00.000-07:002016-06-16T12:05:00.034-07:00Black Holes Explained
This was such a treat - my interview on black holes and gravitational waves with Nergis Mavalvala, an astrophysicist at MIT. Her team finally observed the "ripples in spacetime" predicted by Albert Einstein a hundred years ago. Apart from being a brilliant scientist, Nergis is also a very funny and eloquent speaker on women's rights and minority rights.
The interview is part of a series of Sophie Hardachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02571027538201714160noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3716331321011598936.post-37429417595617038372016-03-14T10:41:00.002-07:002019-03-20T04:49:48.058-07:00Secret London
Another BBC Culture story - this time on one of my favourite places in London, a hidden study room at the British Museum that houses one of the world's largest collections of prints and drawings: http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20160304-my-date-with-michelangeloSophie Hardachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02571027538201714160noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3716331321011598936.post-97361247495873852016-03-14T10:41:00.001-07:002016-06-22T08:57:49.359-07:00Secret London
Another BBC Culture story - this time on one of my favourite places in London, a hidden study room at the British Museum that houses one of the world's largest collections of prints and drawings: http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20160304-my-date-with-michelangeloSophie Hardachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02571027538201714160noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3716331321011598936.post-23152047160497389562016-03-04T06:35:00.001-08:002016-03-04T06:35:28.557-08:00Unseen City
This interview with Martin Parr about Unseen City, his current exhibition at the Guildhall Art Gallery, was a lot of fun. I've long admired his work - it's witty and warm and somehow very British. Go and see his show, you'll find out all sorts of fascinating things about London's medieval guilds and ancient traditions like swan upping. (Yes, it's a thing!)Sophie Hardachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02571027538201714160noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3716331321011598936.post-1056732496748558622016-02-09T08:29:00.002-08:002016-02-09T08:30:09.981-08:00Britain's vanishing public art
Bulldozed, stolen, melted down... my piece for BBC Culture on efforts to track down Britain's missing art: http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20160208-why-are-these-masterpieces-at-risk
Sophie Hardachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02571027538201714160noreply@blogger.com0