Author: Lori Jia
Yesterday I asked whether many scientists tattooed themselves with their science. The answer is yes, at least for about a dozen people who responded with their own bodywork, which now appears at the end of the post. Here’s the latest, from an invertebrate biologist. As a tattoo-free person, I keep wondering, when does the screaming stop?
Originally published August 7, 2007. Copyright 2007 Carl Zimmer.
Who says scientists can’t write? Moselio Schaechter finds a lovely passage about a lowly fungus from 1884.
Small Things Considered: The Victorian Way With Words
Originally published August 6, 2007. Copyright 2007 Carl Zimmer.
The other day I was pondering how scientists tattoo themselves with their science. I was at a pool party where a friend, Bob Datta, had jumped into the water with his kids. Datta is a post-doc at Columbia, where he studies genes in Drosophila flies. I noticed that Bob had a tattoo of DNA on his shoulder. At first I thought it was a generic snippet of the molecule, but then Bob told me that it actually represents, in the genetic code, his wife’s initials: EEE. Geek love in its noblest form. [For the gorey specifics, see Bob’s comment below.]
My mid-year resolution is to become a more sociable blogger–to point out good posts elsewhere that might otherwise be missed. Today’s link: Philip Ball casts a steely gaze at the latest round of papers about the so-called “memory of water” over at homunculus
Originally published August 3, 2007. Copyright 2007 Carl Zimmer.
There’s been a small, but stunning, step forward in the quest to help people who have suffered consciousness-impairing injuries. Scientists inserted electrodes into the brain of a man in a minimally conscious state. They used the electrodes to stimulate parts of the brain believed to be crucial for binding together the brain into an aware state. As the doctors hoped, the stimulation made the man more responsive. He was able to name objects and to hold a cup to his lips. The details of the experiment appear in this week’s issue of Nature.