Meaning, Language & Human Thought 2026
An annual Special Edition bringing together published research animations around a shared research theme.
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Annual Special Edition
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Human societies are built around ideas. Through language, belief, philosophy, history and culture, people interpret the world, communicate meaning and pass knowledge between generations.
This Special Edition brings together research exploring the ideas and cultural traditions that shape human thought. From language and religion to historical interpretation and philosophy, the collection examines how people make sense of themselves, one another and the wider world.
Edition Editor
Dr Nelly Berg
Executive Editor
George Borski – Ivan Kolkov | Was Copernicus an Astrologer? New Evidence Closes an Old Debate
For many decades, historians have argued over whether Nicolaus Copernicus – the astronomer who first proposed that Earth orbits the Sun rather than the other way around – also cast horoscopes and used astrology in his medical practice. It sounds like a simple question, but it has generated some of the most heated debates in the history of science. Now, a new paper by George Borski and Ivan Kolkov brings fresh evidence to bear on the controversy, and the answer is more nuanced than either side expected.
Jila Ghomeshi | How Canadian Weather Forecasts Are Challenging Grammar Rules
Weather forecasts seem straightforward – temperatures, clouds, maybe a bit of rain. But the language used to describe the weather can reveal surprising quirks about how English works. A recent linguistic study takes a closer look at an unusual pattern heard in Canadian radio forecasts and shows that even familiar phrases like “we are five degrees” can challenge long-held assumptions about grammar.
Project 1444
Before there were borders… before conquest rewrote the maps… there was Africa – the birthplace of humanity. Cradle of civilizations, technologies, philosophies, and sacred traditions that shaped the ancient world. Yet too often, Africa’s story is forced to begin in bondage – with loss, rupture, and the European Slave Trade.
Dr Ori Soltes | The War Within: How Our Search for Meaning Can Unite or Divide Us
Religion has long helped people make sense of the world, but as Dr Ori Soltes argues in a recent paper, this guidance comes with deep complications. Even the word religion contains a puzzle. It stems from the Latin religio, meaning ‘to bind back’, which immediately raises the question of what we are trying to reconnect with in the first place. That act of binding back is ultimately tied to a search for meaning – a deep human need to understand our place in the world and how we relate to everything around us. Across history, people have turned to religion to navigate existence, mortality, and uncertainty. But trying to understand that source of meaning, and then expressing it through the limitations of human language, is where the real trouble begins.
Professor Robert Slesinski | Love, Death, and the Unity of All Things: Lev Karsavin’s Philosophy of “Liebestod”
In the chaos of early twentieth-century Russia, philosopher and historian Lev Karsavin (1882–1952) sought to reconcile faith, reason, and the depths of human emotion. Exiled and later imprisoned in the Soviet gulag, he developed a vision of “all-embracing unity,” where even love, suffering, and death reveal the presence of the divine. Professor Robert Slesinski’s book, Liebestod: The Philosophy of Lev Karsavin, explores this striking figure in Russian religious thought.
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