I’ve been offered a few islands to do my work.

Craig Venter said this in passing, almost under his breath, as he spoke Wednesday night about the future of biology at the Oxonian Society in New York. It was a perfect Venterism. Venter, of course, is the scientist who declared he would lead a project to sequence the human genome faster, better, and much cheaper than the official government effort. He’s the guy who then had the audacity last year to publish the most accurate genome sequence to date–his own. 

Continue reading “Clone Armies And Designer Life” →

If you’re new to the Loom, you may not be aware that I have a thing for science tattoos. It’s been exactly a year since I noticed a tattoo on the shoulder of a friend who’s a geneticist at Columbia. The tattoo was DNA, and it spelled his wife’s initials in the genetic code. So I wondered aloud if there were other scientists who had inked themselves with science, and the answer was a shockingly loud yes. In fact, I was soon inundated with so many pictures of tattoos (and enlightening stories behind them) that I had to separate them from my old blog to keep them organized. The tattoos have become fodder for stories in places like New Scientist and Wired. Now that the Loom has arrived at Discover, I’m bringing them back into the fold.

Continue reading “Re-Discover the Science Tattoo Emporium” →

Just a quick note: over to the right you’ll see a blog roll of some of my favorite blogs. I’m having a little trouble dumping all my favorite blogs at once into the right place on the back end, so I’ll just add them now and then. Today’s addition is a baby blog–The Rough Guide to Evolution. It’s by Mark Pallen, a British microbiologist and evolutionary biologist I’ve interviewed several times (see this National Geographic article for starters). You may also know Mark for his Origin of Species dub. Despite having his hands full (see image), Mark has just hammered out an eponymous book that will be published at the end of the year, and he promises to post on his blog every day till then…and beyond? Anyway–check it out.

Continue reading “A Baby Blog” →

Scott writes,

“I have my BS degree in Computer Science from East Carolina University, where I currently work as a software engineer. Here is a picture of my Computer Science tattoo. It is of the question P=NP. This unsolved equation is considered by many to be the Holy Grail of Computer Science. Ever since I came across it in a Computability class, its possibilities and implications have fascinated me. I realize that many believe that P!=NP. To those I say “Prove It” (and be sure to remember me when you collect your Million dollar prize from the Clay Mathematics Institute).”

Continue reading “The Holy Computer Grail” →

Emily writes,

“I’m a physics major that’s going into planetary science and I’ve always been in love with the planets and stars. I actually have two science tattoos. One is the astronomical symbol for Jupiter, my favorite planet, and one of its biggest moons Io. The other one is my favorite constellation, Orion. I chose both of these because I’ve been fascinated by the universe and all it holds since I was really little.”

Click here to go to the full Science Tattoo Emporium. 

Originally published July 30, 2008. Copyright 2008 Carl Zimmer.