The New York Times, October 17, 2004

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I once attended a conference about systematics — the classification of species — and felt as if I were looking at Mount Rushmore with a magnifying glass. The names alone — Tetraconata, Amoebozoa, Ecdysozoa, Oomycota, Neomeniomorpha — were overwhelming. Speaker after speaker hypothesized about how various species were related — whether springtails or bristletails were the closest relatives of winged insects, whether sponges all descended from a common ancestor, whether slime molds are really molds. I stumbled out of the lecture hall desperate for the big picture. And suddenly I saw it, on a five-foot-square poster taped to a wall.

Continue reading “‘The Ancestor’s Tale’: You Are Here” →

The New York Times, July 25, 2004

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SIMON LAMB, a geologist at Oxford University, got a call one day from a television producer about pictures of Atlantis. The lost civilization could be found on 12,000-foot high plains nestled in the Andes Mountains. An Atlantis expert (whatever that is) had shown the producer satellite photographs of the plains, pointing out canals running in parallel straight lines for miles. What more proof could one ask for? The producer called Lamb, an expert on the Andes, for confirmation.

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The New York Times, April 4, 2004

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To imagine a time and place – say, the city of Oxford on a summer day in 1662 – you have to engage not only the mind’s eye and ear but also the mind’s nose. The warm odor of malt and corn flour rises from the boats landing at the wharves along the Thames. The stink of cured fish hanging in fishmongers’ stalls mixes with the soft smell of bread in the bakeries. The smell of manure is everywhere, in the open sewers, on the town common where cows graze, in the streets where horses haul wagons and coaches.

Continue reading “Soul Made Flesh” →