Douglas Whalen, Vice President of Research at Haskins Laboratories, was mentioned in an article by Michael Erard in the November 30, 2007 issue of Science magazine, called "Wanted: More Tongues."

The article indicated that "The U. S. National Science Foundation (NSF) has cheered linguists by strengthening its commitment to a federal effort to record and analyze dying languages. Since 2006, NSF, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Smithsonian Institution have spent $10 million on the Documenting Endangered Languages (DEL) initiative, and this month, NSF said it would make the project a permanent program at the foundation."

Whalen, who is currently on detail from Haskins to the NSF, where he is serving as a program officer for a number of programs, including DEL, said that "Much remains to be done" and, according to the article, estimated that nearly half of the world's 6500 languages could disappear in the next century. The article goes on to say that "NSF hopes to spend $2 million to $3 million next year on the project. Last year's contribution was $3.7 million."