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The Loom

A blog about life, past and future

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Zimmer133.jpg Carl Zimmer is a science writer. His articles appear in the New York Times and many magazines. He is also the author of six books about science. Send messages to blog/ at/ carlzimmer/ dot/ com

Books by Carl Zimmer

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NOW ON SALE!
Microcosm: E. coli and the New Science of Life



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Charles Darwin's The Descent of Man: The Concise Edition



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"As fine a book as one will find on the subject."-- Scientific American

Revised with a new introduction





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"Superb...a non-stop delight."-- New Scientist





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"Fascinating...thrilling... Zimmer has produced a top-notch work of popular science." --LA Times





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"A fascinating story, which Zimmer unfolds as a tale of high-stakes scientific sleuthing...thanks to marvelous lucid writing." --Booklist





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Why the Loom?

"...among the joyous, heartless, ever-juvenile eternities, Pip saw the multitudinous, God-omnipresent, coral insects, that out of the firmament of waters, heaved the colossal orbs. He saw God's foot upon the treadle of the loom, and spoke it; and therefore his shipmates called him mad."
--Moby Dick

December 30, 2005

Stumbling On Through the Blogosphere

Category: General

Wandering around Amazon.com a couple weeks ago, I discovered that they are letting authors blog. It didn't take long for me to set one up here. But once I had set it up, it occurred to me I wasn't sure...

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December 28, 2005

More Fun With Our Post-Modern Politicians

Category: Evolution

Why is it that politicians who say they want to strengthen science teaching standards can sound so post-modern about science? Two examples: 1. John McCain grooving with the kids on MTV about evolution: "I see no reason why students should...

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December 26, 2005

The Other Panda's Thumb

Category: Evolution

If you could travel back to Spain about ten million years ago, you'd have no end of animals to watch, from apes to bear-dogs to saber-tooth tigers. With so many creatures jockeying for your attention (and perhaps chasing you down...

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December 21, 2005

Semiotics of a Leaf--The Dope

Category: Evolution

In October I wrote about the latest ideas about the evolution of autumn colors. The paper is now out....

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The Big Fact-Check: Thoughts On the Day After Dover

Category: Evolution

When Judge John E. Jones III issued his decision in the Dover creationism trial on Tuesday, I downloaded the document with a vague sense of dread. It wasn't just that the decision was 139 pages long. I knew that Judge...

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December 20, 2005

Tree or Trellis--The Dope

Category:

For the information hounds out there, Alan Templeton's paper, "Haplotype Trees and Modern Human Origins," on which I based my previous post is now published....

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Dover: ID is out!

Category: Evolution

Judge Rules Against 'Intelligent Design' Initial reaction: what a relief. Once I have a chance to read the decision, I'll have something vaguely more insightful to say... Update: Oy. The decision turns out to be 139 pages. PDF here. Update,...

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December 15, 2005

Conservative leader: Intelligent Design is "bull----"

Category: Evolution

Blunt talk from L. Lynn Hogue, conservative law professor from Georgia via law.com. Hogue has signed an amicus brief in the Georgia textbook sticker case supporting the removal of the anti-evolution disclaimers. "I'm not religiously sympathetic to anti-evolutionists, who I...

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December 12, 2005

Chimpanzees at Pre-School

Category: Evolution

There are few things as fascinating to me as the question of how our ancestors evolved from small-brained, tree-dwelling apes. But sometimes it all can feel a bit abstract. After all, we're talking about things that happened six million years...

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December 6, 2005

Tree or Trellis

Category: Evolution

Over the weekend I was part of a panel at the American Anthropology Association, the topic of which was "Updating Human Evolution." I got to listen to ten presentations by scientists, each offering a look at how our understanding of...

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December 1, 2005

Quote Mining, Near and Far

Category: Evolution

I've been asked to review a couple books about global warming. Climate change and evolution, which I mainly write about, are intimately related, since life is a potent source of greenhouse gases (methane from bacteria, etc.) and abrupt climate change...

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Updating Human Evolution

Category: Evolution

Light blogging this week is due to my frantic fragment of a week, returning from Thanksgiving and preparing to head down to DC to participate on a panel at the American Anthropological Association. The panel is called "Updating Human Evolution:...

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