Happy October. Since my last newsletter, I’ve done some intense reporting for the New York Times–first on some pretty scary news, and then on some research that lets us all delight in the workings of nature.
First the bad news. Across the United States and Canada, the population of all birds has declined 29 percent since 1970. There are lots of other animals than birds we should be mindful of, of course, but birds speak to people in a special way. Even in the middle of cities, they can visit us from the natural world. And those visits are getting rarer, probably thanks to a number of human factors, from cats to industrial farming.
Monarch butterflies are a lot like birds–they are familiar to backyards across North America, but they’re under threat from intense human pressure. They’re also evolutionary marvels, having gained the ability to eat a poisonous plant. Researchers have uncovered their evolutionary path, by genetically engineering vulnerable flies into “monarch flies.”
Learning about evolution isn’t just fascinating in and of itself. It also gives us clues for our own technological advances. I wrote a column about how leaf-cutting ants have managed to avoid a catastrophe of antibiotic resistance–unlike us.
I’m looking forward to a live conversation with science-fiction and science-fact writer Annalee Newitz on October 23 in San Francisco. Bay Area folks, please join us!
Thanks to the National Association of Science Writers for giving this year’s book award to She Has Her Mother’s Laugh! And congratulations to all the winners–I’m proud to be in your ranks.
I’m very grateful to have been able to teach writing at Yale for the past several years. Teaching requires that I put into words the vague intuitions I’ve developed in my own work. Recently I realized that I needed to organize my notes in a better way for my students. I’ve posted them on my web site and on Medium, if you’d like to check them out.
I was delighted to host Liz Neeley, executive director of Story Collider, and Ed Yong, staff writer at the Atlantic, for a talk in front of a packed house at Yale. You can watch their funny, fascinating talk on YouTube.
“What the IF?” is a new podcast where hosts Philip Shane and Matt Stanley explore science fiction scenarios with real science. I talked to them about a future in which parents (or governments) tinkered with their children’s DNA. Listen here.
October 16, 2019 Boston, MA. Allen Frontiers Symposium. Keynote address.
October 23, 2019 San Francisco. Arts & Ideas at the JCCSF–in conversation with author Annalee Newitz.
October 24, 2019 San Francisco. The Exploratorium.
November 9, 2019 Charleston, SC. Charleston To Charleston Literary Festival
December 3, 2019 Nashville. Vanderbilt University. Chancellor Lecture Series.
My latest book, She Has Her Mother’s Laugh, is now out in paperback. You can order it now from fine book mongers, including Amazon, Barnes and Noble, BAM, Hudson Booksellers, and IndieBound.
You can find information and ordering links for my books here. You can also follow me on Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads, and LinkedIn. If someone forwarded this email to you, you can subscribe to it here.
Best wishes, Carl
Originally published October 4, 2019. Copyright 2019 Carl Zimmer.