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
March 31, 2008
Category: Microcosm: The Book
Greg left a comment: You know, Carl, if you don't have one of these yet, you might consider picking one up to accompany you on your (hoped for) book tour. Greg, I always try to find a plush toy related...
Posted by Carl Zimmer at 11:07 AM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
March 24, 2008
Category: Microcosm: The Book
My recent piece on Slate about E. coli, evolution, and germ warfare is now on their podcast. You can listen to it with this embedded player below, or grab the mp3 file. It is very weird to hear someone else...
Posted by Carl Zimmer at 9:22 AM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
March 21, 2008
Category: Writing Elsewhere
My latest Dissection column for Wired.com takes on the old tug-of-war between Nature and Artifice. As I write in my new book Microcosm: E. coli and the New Science of Life, scientists began to manufacture strange versions of the microbe...
Posted by Carl Zimmer at 9:05 AM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
March 20, 2008
Category: Microcosm: The Book
Having just written a book all about E. coli, including its evolution, I came to wonder what Darwin thought about microbes. I've searched far and wide. I've looked in biographies, for example, and the awesome site Darwin Online. I have...
Posted by Carl Zimmer at 10:38 AM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
March 19, 2008
Category: Microcosm: The Book
Well, we're down now to seven weeks till Microcosm hits the book stores. Here and elsewhere I'm going to discuss some of the fascinating things I discovered about E. coli--and life in general--while working on the book. For instance, I...
Posted by Carl Zimmer at 12:52 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
March 17, 2008
Category: Microcosm: The Book
A few weeks ago I moderated a discussion about synthetic biology down in Washington. Excerpts from the talk (including the one above) are now posted here....
Posted by Carl Zimmer at 11:40 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
March 14, 2008
Category: Evolution
Science writer Edmund Blair Bolles is in Barcelona at the Evolution of Language conference, and he's live-blogging like crazy. Fascinating stuff well worth checking out. [Link fixed-cz]...
Posted by Carl Zimmer at 9:20 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
March 13, 2008
Category: Meta
If you're a scientist mysteried by the media, AAAS has set up a nice site to help. Included are a series of interviews with members of that dubious profession, including Science Friday's Ira Flatow talking about radio, and the New...
Posted by Carl Zimmer at 10:16 AM • 7 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
March 10, 2008
Category: Upcoming Talks
I'm heading to Sarasota, Florida, to talk tonight about the evolution of whales. If anybody bearing oranges gives me a hard time, I'll let you know. The talk will be part of Mote Marine Laboratory's public lecture series. Here are...
Posted by Carl Zimmer at 10:24 AM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
March 6, 2008
Category: Writing Elsewhere
How old is the Grand Canyon? One answer is easy: a lot older than a few thousand years. A more precise answer is harder to get at, however. You have to climb into the caves of the Grand Canyon and...
Posted by Carl Zimmer at 7:50 PM • 15 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
March 3, 2008
Category: Upcoming Talks
My talk last week at Carleton University in Ottawa went well--here's an interview with the university's magazine, and here's a report from someone in the audience. More talks are coming up-- Next week: The evolution of whales at Mote Marine...
Posted by Carl Zimmer at 11:50 PM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Evolution
Hyenas are fascinating in many ways, such as the way female spotted hyenas are equipped with a penis of sorts (pdf). In tomorrow's New York Times, I look at a new kind of fascination: hyena brains. Hyenas have a remarkably...
Posted by Carl Zimmer at 10:33 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
March 1, 2008
Category: Brains
When one of the founders of cognitive neuroscience is helping you plumb the mysteries of consciousness, the self, free will, and the two minds that coexist in our skulls, it helps every now and then to touch your nose. To...
Posted by Carl Zimmer at 10:05 AM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
