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Jessica asked if I think viruses are alive. John has given his opinion. I will waffle, but I hope in an interesting way. The hard thing about answering that question is that we'd have to agree on what it means to be alive.
We all have a sense that we know what's alive and what's not, but I think…
A caterpillar's life is not an easy one. The plants that it eats make toxins to make it sick. Birds swoop in to pluck it away and feed it to their chicks. But the most horrific threat comes from wasps that use caterpillars as hosts for their young. These parasitoid wasps are among my favorite…
Just a technical note--for some reason my site carlzimmer.com has been put on some bad list by Google, so that you are warned that if you go to the site your computer will melt into a pool of liquid germanium. But it's safe.
The microbial march continues! I'll be in Seattle today, giving two talks on Microcosm: E. coli and the New Science of Life. The first is a 1:30 talk at Microsoft Research. Then I'll be giving a public talk at Town Hall at 7:30 as part of their science series.
One of the most important experiments in evolution is going on right now in a laboratory in Michigan State University. A dozen flasks full of E. coli are sloshing around on a gently rocking table. The bacteria in those flasks has been evolving since 1988--for over 44,000 generations. And because…
The French biologist Jacques Monod once famously said, "What is true for E. coli is true for the elephant." At the time, he was referring to the universal rules of molecular biology--of DNA and proteins, for example, that are the same from one species to another. As scientists in the mid-1900s…
The E. coli epidemic spreads today to the Bay Area. Please come out to Kepler's to hear me talk about Microcosm: E. coli and the New Science of Life.
To kick off this book club discussion, I want to explain how I ended up the past couple years obsessing over E. coli. If you don't know much about E. coli, it may sound like a strange thing to do. But the time I spent in this microbe's intellectual company was deeply enlightening.
I came to write…
One of the best things to come out of blogging is the blog book club. (See, for example, the book club at Talking Points Memo.) In the bad old days, the only way writers could respond to books was with a one-shot book review. A blog book club, on the other hand, allows writers to have public…
I'm heading cross-country to talk about Microcosm. First stop--Powell's bookstore in Portland tonight. Never been there before, so I'm looking forward to a bibliophile's pilgrimage. Hope to see Portlanders there!
In case you couldn't make it to my World Science Festival panel this afternoon, check out my conversation with co-panelist/journalist/book author Peter Pringle on bloggingheads.
I'm heading to the New York Botanical Gardens to moderate a World Science Festival panel on crops, biodiversity, seed banks, and the amazing life of the Soviet scientist Nikolai Vavilov. (For some background, see this New Yorker article from last year.)
If you come to the panel, stick around for…
E. coli is, arguably, the one species that scientists know best. If you type the name "Escherichia coli" into PubMed, the database of the National Library of Medicine, you'll get over a quarter of a million titles of scientific papers. Scientists have sequenced about 30 genomes of different…
I would love to introduce him to a certain resident of his gut. (Hat tip: Tree of Life)
I have been meaning for some days now to point your attention to my new article in the June issue of Scientific American called, "What Is A Species?" The hard copy is worth tracking down because it's got a lot of excellent illustrations and sidebars. SciAm has the full article online for…
As I mentioned previously, I'll be moderating a panel at the World Science Festival in New York on Thursday. It will be about art, science, and homeland security.
In 2004 artist Steven Kurtz was accused of terrorism when police came across bacteria and biological equipment in his house. After the…
Blogs are abuzz with the news that E. coli can solve classic math puzzles like the Burnt Pancake Puzzle. The paper itself is available for free here.
Judging from the Frankensteinian anxiety this news seems to be triggering, people must think that life is normally not capable of the logic that we'…
I'll be giving three talks in the next couple weeks in New York.
First up, my lecture at Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn Tuesday. It's possible I'll be able to post the video of the lecture later--I'll let you know. (Out of curiosity--anybody know a good way to combine video and powerpoint…
Had another author told me his publisher was sending me a copy of a book on Escherichia coli, I would have been perhaps quietly unenthusiastic. But best selling science writer Carl Zimmer is a master story teller and superb researcher. He's also renowned for effortlessly slipping a giant payload of…
Blogging briefly from Chicago. Today's talk at the Field Museum went well--I managed to lure a fair number of people inside from a beautiful spring afternoon to hear me talk about a gut germ. I also had a chance to walk through the fabulous Shedd Aquarium. The Field Museum has an acquarium of its…
The platypus genome, which was published for the first time last week, has proved to be a Whitman's sampler of biological treats. In case you missed the initial reports, you can check out a good summary from PZ Myers (and also take a look at Ryan Gregory's take-down of the bad coverage). But today…
Do you live in Brooklyn? Or a subway ride from SUNY Downstate Medical Center? Are you free Tuesday May 20 at 4 pm? Then swing over for a lecture I'll be giving on the evolution of mind. Here's a copy of the poster (full size here). And while I'll certainly be talking about human minds, you can…
The New York Sun has a positive review of Microcosm today, and part of me just wants to point you in its direction, let you read about the book's "ecstatically reflective moments," and leave it at that. But there's one puzzling passage that makes me wonder if some printer bent on mischief swapped…
Last fall the Loom was awash in tattoos from scientists. Since then, I've moved them over to my Science Tattoo Emporium. If you haven't checked it out recently, let me invite you over. Incredibly, someone sends me a new science tattoo just about every day. I post them as fast as I can, but I've…
I'm heading to Boston on Friday to speak at the Harvard Book Store about Microcosm. It's at 7 pm, and it's free. Information is here. Then it's on to Chicago, where I'll be talking at the Field Museum on Saturday at 2. Here are the details. I hope some Loom readers can make it! (For those who don't…
Following up on the last post, here's George Johnson with Stephen Colbert. Where else on TV could someone recreate one of Faraday's experiments? The new Mr. Wizard?
As long as I can remember, I've been a fan of George Johnson's writing about science. He has always kept focus on the deep mysteries of existence, even while writing in a deliciously clear style. So it was a real pleasure to talk to him on bloggingheads.tv about my own book, Microcosm. Even though…
From the new issue: "It is a powerful account of the dynamic, complicated and social world we share with this ordinary yet remarkable bug. Evolution and genetics glitter among the pages, as do the lives and experiments of the scientists who have studied them. Microcosm is exciting, original and…
I'll be talking on Coast to Coast at a slightly less wee-hours time: 1 am on Sunday.
Just a quick note to say that, if all goes according to plan, I will be appearing on the Internets on bloggingheads tomorrow, and on the radio show Coast-to-Coast in the wee hours of Saturday night/Sunday morning. In both cases I'll be talking about--you guessed it--Microcosm. I'll be swilling…