Allow me to introduce myself by way of a homecoming.

It was at Discover that I started writing about science, a couple years out of college and with no clear idea of what I was going to do. My first two articles came out in the same issue in November 1989. One was illustrated with a picture of E. coli colonies, each glowing its own color of the rainbow. The story described the work of a scientist named Keith Wood, who had isolated the gene fireflies use to glow in 1984, and who went on two isolate genes for other colors from Jamaican beetles.

Continue reading “It Was Foretold Long Ago” →

I have some news for readers of the Loom. For the third time in this blog’s life, I’m packing it up and moving it to a new home.

I would like offer my deepest thanks to Scienceblogs for hosting the Loom for two years. I got to know a great community of bloggers whom I will continue to follow closely as they flood my RSS stream. Virginia Hughes, Katherine Sharpe, Tim Murtaugh, and the rest of the folks behind the scenes at Scienceblogs have always been quick to solve my tech problems while never trying to control my editorial content.

Continue reading “The Loom Ends. The Loom Lives!” →

Vincent, “a fledgling mathematician,” writes:

“This tattoo is of a microscope. 90% of the time when I show it to people they say ‘Oh! a telescope!’ I generally don’t correct them, I just get a little uncomfortable and put my shirt back on. Most of the images are copies of SEMs, the background figures include, a fish parasite, anthrax, a scoop of iced cream that has fallen off the cone, flea eggs, bone marrow, and a virus attacking a sun dried tomato! yum!”

Click here to go to the full Science Tattoo Emporium. 

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

…at 5 today.

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

Rich writes:

“These are two species of primates that I had tattooed on my forearms. One is a tamarin monkey in honor of Paul Garber (who studies tamarin monkeys), the professor who started me off on the path to becoming a biological anthropologist. The other is a sifaka, my current study species. This tattoo was actually paid for by my advisor, Alison Richard (how cool is that!). Alison promised me a sifaka tattoo once I finished my dissertation. Overall, I have three tattoos, as part of a silly/dorky–but accomplished–plan I came up with my freshman year in college after I decided I wanted to be a primatologist: get one tattoo for each degree I earn. I have a DNA “armband” for my BA; the tamarin monkey is for my MA degree, and the sifaka marks my Ph.D.”

Continue reading “Cousins with Tails” →