A couple weeks ago I spoke at Downstate Medical Center in New York about some of my articles in the New York Times that revolve around how the mind evolved. We can learn from bacteria, fruit flies, hyenas, and our own kids. You can now see the whole lecture with surprisingly clear slides on blip.tv. Click on the screen below, or go to the page on blip.tv. Warning: the sound drops out briefly around 13:00. 

Originally published June 6, 2008. Copyright 2008 Carl Zimmer.

Glendon writes:

“I am not a scientist, but I am an oil painter and illustrator in awe of science. My work can be seen on the Scienceblog, Of Two Minds as well as the online ‘zine The Eloquent Atheist. My blog is called The Flying Trilobite, and I paint fanciful and surreal images inspired by the discoveries in biology and evolutionary history. Unreal trilobites with insect or bat wings have been a part of my work for over 12 years now and I have painted some of them on pieces of shale, as in this interview with Virginia Hughes. Yesterday I got this tattoo on my arm.”

Continue reading “A Trilobite, This Time With Wings”

I spoke Tuesday on Seattle, and there’s proof now! Alan Boyle, MSNBC’s science guru, wrote a great piece on both the talk and the subject, my book Microcosm. Meanwhile, folks from Real Science were taping, and now you can listen to the talk at their web site. If I had lots of free time, I’d combine the audio with my slides and post them, but I’m swamped for now.

I also completely spaced out last week and forgot to mention that I was interviewed on the Skeptic’s Guide to the Universe. You can listen here.

Continue reading “Microcosm on MSNBC, Podcasts”

I’m back at last from the west coast leg of the Microcosm tour.

Portland had a cloudy, melancholy charm, and at Powell’s I gave a reading in front of a collection of hand-made black velvet paintings from the nearby Velveteria. When the audience’s eyes drifted off of me, I couldn’t tell if they were lost in thought or distracted by Jimi Hendrix or a smoking clown.

Continue reading “E. coli Evolution Follow-up”