Author: Matt Kristoffersen
Hurrah! Choice, the leading magazine for academic book reviews, has namedThe Tangled Bank: An Introduction to Evolution one of the outstanding academic titles of 2010. Here’s a line from the announcement: “These outstanding works have been selected for their excellence in scholarship and presentation, the significance of their contribution to the field, and their value as important–often the first–treatment of their subject.”
Originally published January 3, 2011. Copyright 2011 Carl Zimmer.
Scientific American, January 1, 2011
A single neuron sits in a petri dish, crackling in lonely contentment. From time to time, it spontaneously unleashes a wave of electric current that travels down its length. If you deliver pulses of electricity to one end of the cell, the neuron may respond with extra spikes of voltage. Bathe the neuron in various neurotransmitters, and you can alter the strength and timing of its electrical waves. On its own, in its dish, the neuron can’t do much. But join together 302 neurons, and they become a nervous system that can keep the worm Caenorhabditis elegans alive—sensing the animal’s surroundings, making decisions and issuing commands to the worm’s body. Join together 100 billion neurons—with 100 trillion connections—and you have yourself a human brain, capable of much, much more.
Happy New Year to one and all. 2010 has been a busy one here, full of tattoos, duck privates, and cannibal Neanderthals. Here are the top posts of the year at the Loom…[P.S.–These are top posts as measured by readership]
I’ve updated my post on the supposed evidence of Homo sapiens in Israel 400,000 years ago. We have a better idea of where this worldwide meme got started, and what the scientist behind the paper thinks about what happened…
Originally published December 31, 2010. Copyright 2010 Carl Zimmer.
Last year, I gave the keynote lecture at the first annual Northeast Conference on Science and Skepticism in New York. It was a nerve-wracking experience, given that James Randi was originally slated to give the keynote, but was too ill at the time to attend. So I brought some of my favorite head-slapping tales of the dysfunctional relationship between science and the media, from global warming disinformation to so-called missing links. My goals for the talk were laughter, tears, and a glimmer of hope.
Continue reading “Missing Links, George Will, and Other Train Wrecks: My Keynote Talk at NECSS”