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
"As fine a book as one will find on the subject."-- Scientific American
Revised with a new introduction
"Superb...a non-stop delight."-- New Scientist
"Fascinating...thrilling... Zimmer has produced a top-notch work of popular science." --LA Times
"A fascinating story, which Zimmer unfolds as a tale of high-stakes scientific sleuthing...thanks to marvelous lucid writing." --Booklist
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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
June 30, 2007
Category: General
For the past few days I've been rushing around, first to Woods Hole, Massachusetts, to talk to some people at the Marine Biological Laboratory about the E. coli book, and then on an infinite chain of connecting flights to come...
Posted by Carl Zimmer at 5:31 PM • 9 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
June 28, 2007
Category: General
If you want to know how a new word gets into Oxford dictionaries, or are interested more generally in the bubbling cauldron of modern English, check out the the first post of new blog from Oxford University Press, From A...
Posted by Carl Zimmer at 10:00 AM • 6 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
June 26, 2007
Category: Evolution
In the past few months, the New York Times science section has been putting together some special packages of articles, and this week's bundle is on the topic of evolution. You can read John Noble Wilford on hominids, Nicholas Wade...
Posted by Carl Zimmer at 12:03 AM • 11 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
June 22, 2007
Category: General
If you sometimes look around and ask yourself, "So what is life, anyway?"--even if you haven't ingested some illegal substance--you may be interested in a story I've written for Seed magazine. "The Meaning of Life" is the cover story for...
Posted by Carl Zimmer at 9:56 AM • 8 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
June 21, 2007
Category: Evolution
Last November, scientists announced they had revived a virus that had been dead for millions of years. The virus belongs to a special class that multiply by inserting their genetic code into the genome of their host cell. When the...
Posted by Carl Zimmer at 2:00 PM • 7 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
June 20, 2007
Category: Meta
Over at Aetiology, Tara Smith launched an interesting discussion by talking about why her heart doesn't automatically leap when a reporter wants to talk to her. That post was followed by a lot of scientists swearing up and down about...
Posted by Carl Zimmer at 12:04 AM • 11 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
June 17, 2007
Category: Evolution
Today I jump sections at the New York Times. In the Week In Review, I take a look at the news of a bowhead whale that carried a harpoon tip for 115 years. It's a cool discovery, but 115 years...
Posted by Carl Zimmer at 12:39 AM • 16 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
June 12, 2007
Category: General
Nine years ago I had the opportunity to visit southern Sudan. With a few other reporters, I flew from Nairobi to Lokichokio in northern Kenya, where we prepared to cross the border. A man took our passports and told us...
Posted by Carl Zimmer at 7:00 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
June 10, 2007
Category: Meta
Whoosh. A year has passed since I got my passport stamped with a scienceblogs.com visa. Thanks to all who have come this way and shared your thoughts. May the next year bring more of life's surprises....
Posted by Carl Zimmer at 1:25 AM • 6 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
June 7, 2007
Category: Microcosm: The Book
For the past few years, Craig Venter, the human genome pioneer, has been trying to build an organism from scratch. While Venter is no shrinking wallflower (see, for example, a recent interview in Newsweek), he has been keeping his synthetic-life...
Posted by Carl Zimmer at 1:37 PM • 23 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
June 5, 2007
Category: General
Okay--we're moving again. I await your comments (as usual, there will be small delay for moderation.) You'll have to make up for my appalling silence today as I work on (gasp) magazine articles. I know, I know, how very dead-tree...
Posted by Carl Zimmer at 2:41 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: General
Someone just emailed me to let me know she couldn't post a comment. For some reason that feature has shut itself down. I've been traveling, so it's taken me a while to start dealing with this. I'll let the Scienceblogs...
Posted by Carl Zimmer at 9:36 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
