The clapping hands emoji: When used repetitively in a row, it signifies applause, but as any social media user by now understands, that is not the emoji's primary placement in the world of Twitter.

Hand clapping is ubiquitous behavior for humans across time and cultures, serving many different purposes: to signify approval with applause, for instance, or to keep time to music. Acousticians often ...

If wordlessly clapping your hands to make as much noise as possible feels like a rather primitive thing to do, you’d be quite right. It’s thought that the origins of applause lie far, far back in the ...