The Utne Reader's Science and Technology blog links has a fascinating video interview with Elizabeth Spelke, who heads a team of Harvard
researchers studying the development of language and social awareness in babies. The video was produced by The Telegraph newspaper in London, which published an in-depth story on this line of research. Here's a nugget: babies from the very youngest age show preference for people who speak with the same accent as their parents, for people their own gender, and for people their own race.