New research suggests that in normal fetal development, babies begin to absorb language when they are inside the womb during the last 10 weeks of pregnancy. Newborns can actually tell the difference between their mother’s native tongue and foreign languages just hours after they are born. How can researchers tell? Dr.Kuhl of Seattle and colleagues used a high-tech pacifier that was connected to a computer that measured infants' reactions to sounds. The study included 80 infants who were, on average, about 30 hours old. They were exposed to vowel sounds in their mother’s native language...