We are natural born mathematicians. For decades, there has been a simmering row among experts about the relationship between language and mathematical ability, with some arguing that we have an innate number sense and others that it is a skill that is learned only if necessary. But the latter idea, that cultures only develop mathematics if they need it, is challenged today by a study that shows that knowing the words for numbers is not necessary to be able to count, a find that the authors say should inform how to teach mathematics at an early age.