Help to unlock the secrets of written language by playing Glyph

Spot visual patterns in humanity’s many scripts and boost the science exploring graphical communication with the online game Glyph, says Layal Liverpool

By Layal Liverpool

STOP reading for a moment and instead take a closer look at the letters that make up each of the words in this sentence. What shapes do the different letters in the alphabet have in common? What makes each letter unique?

Yoolim Kim at Harvard University and her colleagues at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History in Germany are trying to answer these questions. They are interested in analysing writing and graphical communication systems from around the world (see picture). You can help them by taking part in the Glyph citizen science project.

In …