A small team of researchers affiliated with several institutions across China has conducted an in-depth study of the Sino-Tibetan language family and has concluded that it likely originated in present-day northern China. In their paper published in the journal Nature, the group describes their research efforts and the conclusions they drew from them. Randy LaPolla with Nanyang Technological University, in Singapore, has published a News and Views piece describing the work by the team in the same journal issue.