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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

September 28, 2006

Let Evolution Be Your Guide

Category: Evolution

PZ Myers did an excellent job yesterday of dismantling the latest from intelligent-design advocate Jonathan Wells. Wells wrote a piece on WorldNetDaily called "Why Darwinism is Doomed." It is based some new research identifying an important gene involved in the...

Read on »

September 26, 2006

Historical Heat

Category: Global Warming

I always like to consider questions of the day from the perspective of deep time. How hot is it these days? Look back 1.35 million years, and you can see it's pretty hot. Here's a chart, published yesterday in...

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September 22, 2006

Science and Religion Streamed to Your Computer

Category: Evolution

Last week I caught some of the talks at this year's Dwight H. Terry Lecture at Yale. The lectures are in their hundredth year, and this time around the topic was "The Religion and Science Debate: Why Does It Continue?"...

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September 19, 2006

Star-Nosed Genius

Category: Brains

Congratulations to the new crop of Macarthur genius grant winners, including Ken Catania, a neuroscientist at Vanderbilt University whose muse is the star-nosed mole. It turns out that a single strange animal can reveal a lot about how nervous systems...

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September 18, 2006

Why Tainted Spinach And Antibiotics Are a Bad Match

Category: Evolution

Over the weekend I wrote about the natural history of the Escherichia coli strain that has contaminated spinach. According to reports today, 109 people have been identified as sickened with Escherichia coli O157:H7, and one has died. In the comment...

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Headed for Notre Dame

Category: Evolution

I'm gearing up for some autumn talks. First up: Notre Dame University University of Notre Dame. The title of the talk is, "The Darwin Beat: Reporting on Evolution in a Controversial Age." When: Thursday, September 21, 4 pm. Where: Jordan...

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September 15, 2006

The Story Behind The Killer Spinach

Category: Evolution

Don't eat your spinach. That's the word coming today from the FDA: they want everyone to avoid bagged spinach until they can get to the bottom of a nasty outbreak of Escherichia coli O157:H7, a virulent strain that infects an...

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Mooney Gets the Treatment

Category: Evolution

Welcome to the club, Chris Mooney... Chris Mooney is the author of the excellent book, The Republican War on Science. He examines big hot-button scientific issues of the day such as global warming, stem cell research, and, of course, evolution....

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September 14, 2006

Lightning, the Mind, and a World Before Scientists

Category: Brains

Before 1833 there were no scientists. It was in that year that William Whewell, a British philosopher, geologist, and all-around bright bulb, coined the word scientist. His mentor, the poet Samuel Coleridge, thought the English language needed a term for...

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September 8, 2006

Close Your Eyes. Picture a Global Flood...

Category: Evolution

The comment thread over on my recent creationist-critique post has been very lively. A second creationist has joined in the fray, and I've posted a response....

Read on »

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