Author: Matt Kristoffersen
The video of my recent appearance on This Week in Science is on YouTube now. I turn up to talk about viruses at 42:50, as Kirsten Stanford and Justin Jackson splash freaky images of jackalopes, tree men, and other virus-related things. Check it out.
Originally published March 8, 2012. Copyright 2012 Carl Zimmer.
In my new column for Discover, I write about Eric Courchesne, a neuroscientist at the University of California at San Diego. Courchesne survived childhood polio, went on to become a champion gymnast, and then turned his attention to another nervous system disorder: autism. Courchesne is one of the first researchers to find anatomical differences in the brains of people with and without autism. He believes his findings point to autism’s beginnings before birth, and perhaps even to new ways to treat it. Check it out.
Originally published March 6, 2012. Copyright 2012 Carl Zimmer.
Just a quick reminder that I’ll be talking about Science Ink on Thursday at 7 pm at the Guilford Free Library in Guilford, CT. I’ll be in the lovely Historical Room on the second floor. Fortunately, I’ll have some historical engravings of tattooed Maori and such to match the ambiance.
Originally published March 6, 2012. Copyright 2012 Carl Zimmer.
Download the Universe, a new science ebook review, is now entering its third week of life. We’ve been publishing a string of new reviews since I last blogged about it. If you haven’t had a chance to check it out, now is a great time to do so. Here are the latest:
The ongoing controversy over experimental strains of bird flu is one of those multi-dimensional stories that you just can’t fit into one article. I’ve written about it at Slate and here at the Loom, and I can point elsewhere to no end of excellent stuff. Fellow Discover blogger Ed Yong has a sharp, concise round-up on the research over at Nature, for example, and Michael Specter has a new story on it in this week’s New Yorker (subscription required, alas).
In tomorrow’s New York Times, I take a look into one dimension of the story that has seemed under-explored to me. The controversy over the bird flu revolves around the risk that publishing the full details of the research could lead someone to recreate the virus and unleash a pandemic. Not just a terrorist or a hostile nation, but perhaps even a so-called “garage scientist” toiling at home. Is this a realistic risk, or unfounded fear? After talking to virologists who make viruses for a living and DIY biologists who don’t, I find that the answer is pretty complicated. Check it out.
Originally published March 5, 2012. Copyright 2012 Carl Zimmer.
