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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. PLEASE VISIT THE LOOM AT ITS NEW HOME.

Books by Carl Zimmer

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"Essential reading"--Publisher's Weekly
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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The Original Home of the Giant Flatulent Raccoon

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

July 24, 2006

What A Waste of Quicktime

Category: Evolution

The Washington Post has an article today called And the Evolutionary Beat Goes On . . .. It is based on some interviews with scientists who are documenting evidence of natural selection in humans. I won't be surprised if it...

Read on »

July 20, 2006

The Neanderthal Genome: File Under Non-Fiction

Category: Evolution

As I wrote in May, there have been some signs that scientists were gearing up to reconstruct the Neanderthal genome. Now it's official, as Nicholas Wade reports in the NY Times. [link fixed] I'm particularly intrigued that the paleoanthropologists doing...

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July 19, 2006

Hopping to Wyoming

Category: Global Warming

As I browsed the new papers published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, I was brought up short by this frolicsome picture. It's a nice example of the visual display of information done right....

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July 17, 2006

Waiting for the Electrician, or Someone Like Him

Category: Evolution

If our genes are wired like circuits, does that mean nature is an electrician?...

Read on »

July 13, 2006

Dodos in Kansas

Category: Evolution

Randy Olson visited the Loom a few months ago in connection with his movie about our national fun and games with evolution and intelligent design, Flock of Dodos. He provoked a lot of discussion with his main point, that biologists...

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July 12, 2006

In the Beginning Was Linux?

Category: Evolution

It was eight years ago that some computer programmers got together and issued a manifesto for something they called open source software. Conventional software development--kept hidden behind walls of intellectual property, copyright, and secrecy--was clumsy and slow. It would be...

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July 11, 2006

Why Dodos (and Lions and Tortoises) Matter

Category: Evolution

A good article on the importances of big animals helps put the new dodo fossil discoveries in some ecological context. If you can't bring dodos back, at least bring in the giant tortoises!...

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July 10, 2006

Yarn Versus Science: Who Wins?

Category: General

A couple readers have emailed me asking what I think of the recent Nature article on blogs by scientists. I agree with Revere that it's great that Nature (and specifically, Nature reporter Declan Butler) is paying such close attention to...

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Behold, For *I* am the Giant Flatulent Raccoon!

Category: Evolution

I just want to make one thing clear. When Ann Coulter talks about her Giant Raccoon Flatulence Theory, she's talking about me. Don't let anyone else tell you that they are a giant flatulent raccoon. They're all just a bunch...

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July 4, 2006

The Dodo Graveyard

Category: Evolution

In today's New York Times I have an article about the discovery of a vast graveyard of dodo fossils. The fossils date back an estimated 3,000 years. Dodo fossils are exquisitely rare, and so it's quite something to find an...

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