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Posts by this author
February 21, 2006
This is why I was so lucky to get Carl Buell to illustrate my first book.
February 20, 2006
In tomorrow's New York Times, I have an article about how new species evolve. It describes new research into how a population can split into two species. The idea that species can evolve when populations get geographically isolated is well-supported by evidence, but the idea that individuals…
February 20, 2006
You and an oak tree have something in common: you're both big. Unlike viruses and bacteria, you and an oak tree are both made up of trillions of cells. There's something else you and an oak tree have in common: you both began as an individual cell, which then divided again and again, its daughter…
February 17, 2006
Randy Olson, director of the movie, Flock of Dodos has sent in some thoughts regarding the ongoing conversation here about his movie. A lot of commenters were offering opinions on how evolutionary biologists should communicate with the rest of us. I thought I'd publish his entire comment here in a…
February 16, 2006
The nominees for the 2005 Koufax Awards: Best Expert Blog have been posted. Many thanks to whoever put the Loom on the list. The voting hasn't started yet, but please keep this blog in mind when it does. I don't hold out too much hope, since the list contains quite a lot of impressive bloggers.…
February 13, 2006
My post on zombie roaches and brain surgeon wasps seems to have hit a nerve. There have been well over 100,000 hits on that post alone, and 175 comments have been posted. I imagine that most people haven't read through all 175 (many of which have more to do with God than wasps). But I would urge…
February 13, 2006
Last night I drove into New Haven, Connecticut, to catch an advanced screening of Flock of Dodos, a movie about evolution and intelligent design. Afterwards I took part in a panel discussion. It was an interesting evening, not only because the movie was quite good, but because it provoked a noisy…
February 11, 2006
Over at DailyKos, DarkSyde has been interviewing science bloggers. Here's our exchange. Greetings to visitors from DailyKos--make yourself at home. If you're looking for a few samplers of the stuff I write, you may want to check out the "Starting Points and Old Favorites" list in the righthand…
February 10, 2006
Congratulations to Dan Vergano of USA Today, Michelle Nijhuis of High Country News for winning the 2006 journalism awards from the American Geophysical Union. The AGU is the country's leading organization of Earth scientists. Both reporters won for articles on global warming.
You can read Vergano's…
February 9, 2006
Or at least at the bottom of a movie poster.
February 8, 2006
Peter Brown, one of the discoverers of Homo floresiensis a k a the Hobbit (previous posts here), had a few interesting remarks in an article in today's Oregon Daily Emerald:
Though the hobbit people were very small -- the adult stood as tall as a 3-year-old human child and had a brain the size of a…
February 8, 2006
The movie Flock of Dodos, which takes a look at the evolution-creationism struggle, will have a free showing on Monday in New Haven, Connecticut. I'll be there as part of a panel discussion after the movie, moderated by Michael J. Donoghue, the director of Yale's Peabody Museum. The panel will also…
February 8, 2006
Dinosaur paleontologists don't look for fossils simply because dinosaurs are cool. They want to solve evolutionary mysteries. Like all living things, dinosaurs form groups of species. You've got your long-necked sauropods, your head-shield-sporting ceratopsians, and so on. The distinctiveness of a…
February 6, 2006
I know what you're thinking.
You're thinking, I need more stories about leeches. I want to find out what scientists are learning about how leeches evolved.
And I know that's not all you want.
You want to watch a leech video.
And you want a podcast about leech evolution.
Well, you're in luck.
Here…
February 2, 2006
I collect tales of parasites the way some people collect Star Trek plates. And having filled an entire book with them, I thought I had pretty much collected the whole set. But until now I had somehow missed the gruesome glory that is a wasp named Ampulex compressa.
As an adult, Ampulex compressa…
January 25, 2006
I've got an article in tomrrow's New York Times about the discovery of a remarkable case of convergence: an ancient relative of today's crocodiles and alligators that evolved a dinosaur's body--80 million before the dinosaurs evolved it. Here's the paper.
Update, 1/26 7 am: Here's Seth Sean Murtha'…
January 25, 2006
My review of the Darwin show at the American Museum of Natural History is in the new issue of Discover. You can read the full text here.
January 17, 2006
Are brain parasites altering the personalities of three billion people? The question emerged a few years ago, and it shows no signs of going away.
I first encountered this idea while working on my book Parasite Rex. I was investigating the remarkable ability parasites have to manipulate the…
January 17, 2006
My apologies for the comment freeze over the past couple days. I've been away and have been distracted with catching up with other business. It should get resolved soon. You can always reach me directly at blog at carlzimmer dot com.
January 12, 2006
I've just been rejiggering my RSS to pick up all the blogs that have come together at Science Blogs. Many of my favorites, like Chris Mooney and PZ Myers, plus ones new to me. As if I didn't have enough ways to burn up my time...
January 11, 2006
Last year was the hottest on record, or the second hottest, depending on the records climatologists look at. The planet has warmed .8 degrees C over the past 150 years, and scientists are generally agreed that greenhouse gases have played a major part in that warming. They also agree that the…
January 10, 2006
Governor Ernie Fletcher of Kentucky uses his State of the Commonwealth speech last night to plug intelligent design:
As I close, let me recognize Kentucky's veterans. You have served to protect our liberty and the freedom that spurs our quality of life in this nation. Please know that this…
January 6, 2006
I've updated yesterday's cat evolution post with some tough comments from an expert on cat fossils. Check it out.
January 6, 2006
Rick Perry's on board! And no postmodern vagueness for him. He's here to tell us that intelligent design is a "valid scientific theory." That's right, governor. Just check out all the work on intelligent design going on in the biology department at your state's fine university. Um...wait...it's…
January 5, 2006
As the proud owner of a fine cat, Tino, I'm happy to join the ritual of cat-blogging. I was inspired after reading a new study that sorts out Tino's kinship with other cats. Now I know that a cheetah is more closely related to Tino than it is to a leopard (right and left, respectively).
The…
January 3, 2006
...to this gem I just received about my post on the Dover creationism case:
Carl,
It doesn't bother you that the judge went beyond any human capacity to attack the board members, not for their actions, not for their efforts to remove science fiction from the science classroom (that would be a…
January 3, 2006
Tomorrow (Wednesday) at 4 pm EST I'll be a guest on Science and Society, an online radio show. You can listen live or visit the site later for a podcast. I'll do my best to be interesting on all things evolutionary, but fortunately I'm sandwiched between two scientists who should be definitely…
January 2, 2006
I have an article in tomorrow's New York Times on a provocative theory about our origins. Humans, other animals, plants, fungi, and protozoans are all eukaryotes. We all share a distinctive genome compared to other organisms (prokaryotes, which include bacteria and archaea). Our genes are more…