The "Star Trek" phaser sound, iconic in its own right, has its origins in a sci-fi horror classic that helped define the ...

That special linguistic connection between a stone-skinned alien and the reluctant astronaut Ryland Grace (Ryan Gosling) was ...

Searching for alien languages sheds light on how much human languages have in common—with each other and even with animal ...

Sound designers Erik Aadahl & Ethan Van der Ryn tell IndieWire about reverse-engineering and performing a non-human language ...

One of the nice things about prose is the absolutely enormous narrative checks you don’t ever have to cash. Andy Weir can write that an alien scientist from the star 40 Eridani has a tonal language ...

Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook Click to share on X (Opens in new window) X “I’ve always been fascinated with things that cannot be explained,” Spielberg revealed in a 2026 ...

How would we recognize a message from an alien civilization if we cannot understand its language? By combining information theory, Zipf’s Law, and studies of human and dolphin communication, ...

Six-year-old Antoni, born in the UK to Polish parents, speaks only a few English words in class and often looks confused when the teacher gives instructions. He could simply be adjusting to English—or ...

Steven Spielberg is synonymous with science fiction, and he’s especially associated with sci-fi stories that feature aliens, but it’s actually been 20 years since the director of E.T. and Close ...

Carlo Rambaldi, the late mechatronics maestro best known for bringing Ridley Scott’s Alien and Steven Spielberg’s E.T. to life, would have turned 100 this autumn. To celebrate, his daughter Daniela co ...