A blog about life, past and future
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
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Microcosm: E. coli and the New Science of Life
Charles Darwin's The Descent of Man: The Concise Edition
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"...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
March 31, 2006
Category: Evolution
A couple weeks ago I wrote about the 98,000 viruses that have permanently pasted their genes into our genome over the past 60 million years. What makes these viruses doubly fascinating is that scientists are making new discoveries about them...
Posted by Carl Zimmer at 11:19 AM • 6 Comments • 1 TrackBacks
March 28, 2006
Category: General
No, there's nothing wrong with your RSS feed. This blog has just gone very quiet as I've become insanely busy with an upcoming talk and my new book project (more on both later). I don't expect to have time to...
Posted by Carl Zimmer at 5:13 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
March 23, 2006
Category: Brains
I have a fondness for collecting brain lore--memes about the wonders of the human brain that race around the world for decades. The classic of brain lore is the "ten-percent myth." As I wrote here, people often claim we only...
Posted by Carl Zimmer at 4:56 PM • 10 Comments • 1 TrackBacks
March 22, 2006
Category: Hobbits (Homo floresiensis)
Kate Wong, Scientific American's excellent paleo reporter has a two-parter on the latest dish on Homo floresiensis a k a the Hobbit. No cymbal crashes, I'm afraid, but interesting nonetheless....
Posted by Carl Zimmer at 8:56 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
March 19, 2006
Category: Evolution
Check out Pharyngula on the new paper that uses penguin fossils to time the evolution of living bird groups. In October I posted this picture of a reconstruction of the penguin in question, which now has a name: Waimanu. I'd...
Posted by Carl Zimmer at 12:57 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
March 17, 2006
Category: The Parasite Files
Even I have my limits....
Posted by Carl Zimmer at 2:19 PM • 10 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Evolution
Randy Olson, who sparked a massive discussion here a couple weeks ago in connection to his movie, Flock of Dodos and how to explain evolution, sends an update: Hello Carl - Big news here -- the official World Premiere of...
Posted by Carl Zimmer at 11:56 AM • 24 Comments • 1 TrackBacks
March 14, 2006
Category: Evolution
Harper has put up a new page on Amazon for the reissued paperback of Evolution: The Triumph of an Idea. It will include an introduction I've written that surveys some of the important developments in both the science and politics...
Posted by Carl Zimmer at 11:08 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Evolution
Last October, a lawsuit was leveled against an evolution web site at UC Berkeley, based on the claim that government funds had been used to promote religious belief. I contributed the section on the history of biological thought. Judy Scotchmoor,...
Posted by Carl Zimmer at 10:18 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
March 13, 2006
Category: Evolution
Natural selection can favor genes that allow children to grow up healthy. But in order to grow up healthy, they need nurturing from their mothers, both before and after birth. If a baby's development puts a strain on a mother,...
Posted by Carl Zimmer at 11:12 PM • 10 Comments • 1 TrackBacks
Category: Evolution
How do we know that we are kin to chimpanzees and howler monkeys and the other primates? For one thing, it's by far the best explanation for the fossil record. For another, our DNA shows signs of kinship to other...
Posted by Carl Zimmer at 6:16 PM • 19 Comments • 1 TrackBacks
March 11, 2006
Category: Evolution
In trying to navigate the new ethical territory of blogging, I've decided to delete part of one of my posts. The full explanation is below....
Posted by Carl Zimmer at 4:24 PM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
March 10, 2006
Category: General
I take a look at two new books on global warming in Sunday's New York Times Book Review. The International Herald Tribune has already posted it on their site (which has no subscription wall to boot). (Update: NYTBR link.) The...
Posted by Carl Zimmer at 11:53 PM • 8 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: General
Mike Lemonick, Time's excellent senior writer on science, has started a blog. I can't think off the top of my head of another staff science writer at a big magazine or newspaper who has a blog (as opposed to us...
Posted by Carl Zimmer at 5:49 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: The Parasite Files
Loyal readers need no introduction to this bit of entomological "Faces of Death." Others who think this must be some sort of hoax, read this (or this). Courtesy of Dr. Fred Liebersat, oracle of the emerald cockroach wasp....
Posted by Carl Zimmer at 2:51 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: The Parasite Files
The Discovery Channel picked up my cockroach zombie story and interviewed Dr. Fred Liebersat on his research. They included some cool footage of the roach and its sinister wasp brain surgeon. To watch, go to their archives and scroll to...
Posted by Carl Zimmer at 9:01 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
March 9, 2006
Category: Evolution
Enceladus, a tiny moon of Saturn, suddenly gets interesting. It may be spewing liquid water. And since the only life we know of needs liquid water--and since Enceladus may now be the second place we know of in the...
Posted by Carl Zimmer at 3:38 PM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Evolution
I've revisited the wrist walker story after a scientist involved accused me of spreading "empty gossip." I don't agree with that charge, but I do think I should retract some of what I wrote. But I've still got some nagging...
Posted by Carl Zimmer at 11:28 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
March 8, 2006
Category: Evolution
I've been in low-blogging mode for a few days as I try to fire off a few dead-tree articles. But I wanted to write up a quick post to draw your attention to threetwo very interesting pieces of human evolution...
Posted by Carl Zimmer at 2:06 PM • 21 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
March 3, 2006
Category: Evolution
Scientists are probably centuries away from drawing the full tree of life. For one thing, they have only discovered a small fraction of the species on Earth--perhaps only ten percent. They are also grappling with the relationships between the...
Posted by Carl Zimmer at 9:42 AM • 17 Comments • 1 TrackBacks
