One of the great milestones of medicine, as I write in my new book She Has Her Mother’s Laugh, was the discovery that some diseases are inherited–even when the parents of sick children seem perfectly healthy.
These hereditary diseases, known as recessive disorders, manifest themselves when both copies of a gene carry a disabling mutation. They include cystic fibrosis and Tay-Sachs disease. But the most striking of them all is sickle cell anemia. An unusually high number of people in some parts of the world are carriers of the disease, because having a single copy of the sickle cell mutation can actually be good for your health.
As a hereditary disease, sickle cell anemia has a history–or, more accurately, a genealogy. Trace mutations back through the generations far enough, and you’ll get to the original copy, which arose in a single person’s DNA. In my new column for the New York Times, I write about a new study that may have traced sickle cell anemia to its source–in a child who lived some seven thousand years ago in the Sahara, back when it was watered by rivers and lakes.
Way, way back in 1999, I left the staff of Discover for the life of a freelancer writer. Freelancers at the time pitched editors with clips–photocopies of previous work. It was a huge pain in the neck, and I thought it might be simpler to make a web site where I could post some of my stories. That way, I could just shoot an editor a few links, rather than a packet of snail mail.
To my surprise, web sites soon became essential online hubs for writers. I loaded mine with information on my books as they came out, and added links to past and upcoming talks. Instead of a small clip file, I expanded it to include an archive of my journalism–pushing two decades of articles now.
But over time, it fell out of date. My head shot took on the cast of Dorian Gray. The underlying bones of html grew brittle. And forget about looking at the site on a phone. It was created at a time when that was an absurd idea.
Now, at last, the designers Michelle Lee and Thomas Fondano have rebuilt my web site from the ground up. In addition to information on my books, articles, and talks, I’ll also be importing my blog posts onto the site. I hope you like it.
Thanks to Maria Konnikova, Brian Hare, and Jennifer Ackerman for their kind words about She Has Her Mother’s Laugh, :
“Traversing time and societies, the personal and the political, the moral and the scientific, She Has Her Mother’s Laugh takes readers on an endlessly mesmerizing journey of what it means to be human. Carl Zimmer has created a brilliant canvas of life that is at times hopeful, at times horrifying, and always beautifully rendered. I could hope for no better guide into the complexities, perils, and, ultimately, potential of what the science of heredity has in store for the world.” —Maria Konnikova, author of The Confidence Game and Mastermind
“With his latest work, Zimmer has assured his place as one of the greatest science writers of our time. She Has Her Mother’s Laugh is an extraordinary exploration of a topic that is at once familiar and foreign, and touches every one of us. With the eloquence of a poet and the expertise of a scientist Zimmer has created a nonfiction thriller that will change the way you think about your family, those you love, and the past and future.” —Brian Hare, co-author of The Genius of Dogs
“She Has Her Mother’s Laugh is at once enlightening and utterly compelling. Carl Zimmer weaves spellbinding narrative with luminous science writing to give us the story of heredity, the story of us all. Anyone interested in where we came from and where we are going—which is to say everyone—will want to read it.”—Jennifer Ackerman, author of Chance in the House of Fate: A Natural History of Heredity
On Thursday, my publisher will pick five subscribers to “Friday’s Elk” to receive a free copy of She Has Her Mother’s Laugh. Stay tuned!
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Best wishes, Carl
Originally published March 10, 2018. Copyright 2018 Carl Zimmer.