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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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Revised with a new introduction
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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 •
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 •
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 •
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 •
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 •
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 •
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 •
Highly Allochthonous 11.05.2009
Eruptions 11.05.2009
Not Exactly Rocket Science 11.05.2009
Corpus Callosum 11.05.2009
Starts With a Bang 11.04.2009
