Nifty Fifty Speaker and Book Fair Author Carl Zimmer Reports on Field Biologists Studying NYC Urban Evolution

kcollins — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 08:00:00 +0000

AT&T sponsored Nifty Fifty program speaker and widely acclaimed science writer Carl Zimmer just published this very interesting New York Times piece on "...a small but growing number of field biologists who study urban evolution -- not the rise and fall of skyscrapers and neighborhoods, but the biological changes that cities bring to the wildlife that inhabits them. For these scientists, the New York metropolitan region is one great laboratory." Carl brings to light recent findings on mice stranded on isolated urban islands that are evolving to adapt to urban stress, fish in the Hudson that have evolved to cope with poisons in the water and native ants that find refuge in median strips - all mutating in response to the pressures of city living.

What other animal species do you think have evolved to adapt to urban settings?

Good Science Writing Takes Clarity, Grace and Intrigue

kcollins — Mon, 16 May 2011 08:00:00 +0000

Good Science Writing Takes Clarity, Grace and Intrigue

Nifty Fifty Speaker Carl Zimmer is often called one of the nation's most astute, informed and lyrical science writers. Specializing in communicating about the wonders and mysteries of evolution, biology and neuroscience, Carl Zimmer - in such books as The Tangled Bank, Parasite Rex, and Soul Made Flesh - writes with such grace, skill and clarity that he makes even difficult subjects like natural selection and the brain understandable and exciting to readers who have little formal education in science.

"I like to write books about subjects that greatly intrigue me --subjects that I want to get more familiar with," says Carl who is also a contributing writer to the New York Times, Discover, Scientific American, Science, and Popular Science, and his award-winning blog, The Loom, keeps readers up to date on the state of research. "For example before writing Soul Made Flesh, I knew I wanted to learn more about the brain," says Carl, but I didn't want to write yet another book about new developments in neuroscience. It's not that there aren't some great books on that particular subject, but there are so many that I didn't want mine to get lost in the crowd. It later occurred to me that there hasn't been much written about the history of neuroscience in a way that's geared toward the public." As he researched the topic, he discovered a period of history, in the mid-1600s - a turbulent and innovative time when the science of neurology was launched and when people came to recognize the brain as we see it today, as the center of our existence. "Once I realized this, I knew I had to write the book," says Carl, the author of 10 science books. His latest work, Brain Cuttings: Fifteen Journeys Through the Mind, is a well-crafted electronic book that takes readers on a lucid journey inside the organ that makes us human.

What do you think it takes to be a good science writer?