Language barriers are holding back science around the world. English is the language of science, but a third of research is not printed in English. Researchers from the University of Cambridge said scientists miss a lot of important research. They said journals should have summaries of a study in many languages. They also said universities should translate research into different languages, especially Chinese, French, Portuguese and Spanish.
International companies are asking staff to use only English to reduce language barriers. Germany's Volkswagen announced that English is its official language. It wants to attract employees. Japan's carmaker Honda said its staff must use English by 2020. Researcher Tatsuya Amano said scientists needed to be serious about this. He said the WHO missed important research about avian flu in China because it was in Chinese.