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
May 29, 2006
Category: Evolution
Usually when you hear about the rapid evolution of bacteria, the story is typically some grim tale of antibiotic resistance or the emergence of some pathogen once restricted to animals. Here's a nicer narrative, but no less instructive. In tomorrow's...
Posted by Carl Zimmer at 10:42 PM • 4 Comments • 2 TrackBacks
May 25, 2006
Category: Evolution
If you're in the neighborhood of Woods Hole, Mass., let me invite you to my talk on Friday, June 9 at the Marine Biological Laboratory. I'll be talking about human evolution, but given that I'll be at the Marine Biological...
Posted by Carl Zimmer at 12:12 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
May 23, 2006
Category: Microcosm: The Book
Over the past few months I've been working on a book on Escherichia coli (more on that later). To get a feel for how scientists work with the bug, I've been spending some time at the lab of Paul...
Posted by Carl Zimmer at 9:49 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: General
Oliver Morton, science writer and Nature news editor, is blogging after a long hiatus at MainlyMartian. He's reporting from the Synthetic Biology 2.0 meeting in Berkeley. Check it out. Update: Actually, you may want to check out the cross-posting at...
Posted by Carl Zimmer at 10:06 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
May 22, 2006
Category: Evolution
In tomorrow's New York Times I have an article about the origin of species--or rather, blocking the origin of species. The evolution of a new species can be a drawn out process, taking thousands or millions of years. First populations...
Posted by Carl Zimmer at 10:44 PM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
May 18, 2006
Category: Hobbits (Homo floresiensis)
It's been a little over a year and a half now since scientists announced the disocvery of the most controversial fossil in the field of human origins: Homo floresiensis a k a the Hobbit. Scientists found bones of a dimunitive...
Posted by Carl Zimmer at 2:01 PM • 16 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
May 17, 2006
Category: Evolution
Nothing gets the blood boiling like a manimal. For many people, the idea of breaching the human species barrier--to mingle our biology with that of an animal--seems like a supreme affront to the moral order. In his January state of...
Posted by Carl Zimmer at 12:29 PM • 19 Comments • 4 TrackBacks
May 16, 2006
A few days ago I explained how an evolutionary change in our hominid ancestors could explain a spectacular surprise failure of a clinical drug trial. At last, I see that the paper is now online...
Posted by Carl Zimmer at 1:48 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Evolution
The BBC has a short article on the first DNA isolated from a Neanderthal's nucleus. (Previous efforts have gotten DNA from their mitochondria, which are small energy-generating organelles.) The results, announced at a meeting, are the fruits of a new...
Posted by Carl Zimmer at 10:50 AM • 1 Comments • 1 TrackBacks
May 15, 2006
Category: The Parasite Files
If you keep a vegetable garden, there's a fair chance you'll encounter a grisly sight this summer. Some poor caterpillar will be clutching a leaf, with the pupae of parasitic wasps sprouting off its back. It has just died in...
Posted by Carl Zimmer at 4:02 PM • 6 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
May 11, 2006
Category: Evolution
Viruses have a special place at the Loom--they're ubiquitous and have some pretty profound influences on the evolution of their hosts (including us). But a French scientist named Patrick Forterre wants to take it up a notch. He's arguing that...
Posted by Carl Zimmer at 5:37 PM • 9 Comments • 1 TrackBacks
May 10, 2006
In case you were worrying that life on Earth would be wiped out by a catastrophic burst of gamma rays, rest easy. It turns out that our galaxy may not be a very good source of gamma ray bursts. I...
Posted by Carl Zimmer at 12:51 PM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
May 8, 2006
Category: Evolution
For those interested in Tiktaalik, the marvelous new transitional fossil of a fish with limbs, check out this new essay from Neil Shubin, one of the fossil's discoverers....
Posted by Carl Zimmer at 12:12 PM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
May 5, 2006
Category: Brains
It's always great to hear senior scientists talk about the bad old days, when one computer could fill an entire room and no one could say what genes were made of. Eric Kandel of Columbia has been studying memory since...
Posted by Carl Zimmer at 12:07 PM • 3 Comments • 1 TrackBacks
May 3, 2006
Category: Evolution
X-Men may be closer than you think | CNET News.com I suspect all science writers have had the unhappy experience sooner or later of busting their butts to translate tough science into clear writing, only to have a headline writer...
Posted by Carl Zimmer at 11:42 AM • 5 Comments • 1 TrackBacks
May 2, 2006
Category: Evolution
In March, six men entered a London hospital to receive an experimental drug. The men were volunteers, and the drug--a potential treatment for arthritis and leukemia--appeared from animal tests to be safe. But within minutes of the first round of...
Posted by Carl Zimmer at 4:10 PM • 6 Comments • 2 TrackBacks
Category: Evolution
Today I've got an article in the New York Times about the report in Nature that starlings can recognize syntax-like patterns in songs, and what that might mean--if anything--for the evolution of language. The blogs have been buzzing about the...
Posted by Carl Zimmer at 12:38 AM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
May 1, 2006
Category: Evolution
The Loom gathered a bit of dust over the past couple weeks as I grappled with another round of deadlines for work that actually pays the mortgage. Life should now get relaxed enough for more blogging, I hope--starting this evening....
Posted by Carl Zimmer at 2:51 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
