Over the next few weeks, I’m going to be writing some posts over at Psychology Today in conjunction with the publication of Brain Cuttings. Here’smy first, on the hazards of trying to predict the future of the brain.

Originally published December 8, 2010. Copyright 2010 Carl Zimmer.

Attention, Nutmeggers!

I hope you can come join me on Thursday, 12/16, when I’ll be giving a lecture at the Yale Medical School, as part of a series hosted by the Yale Medical Humanities and the Arts Council. I’ll be talking about some of the eye-popping studies that have come out over the past couple years on the Neanderthals, our enigmatic extinct cousins (and grandparents, in some cases). It might seem an odd fit to talk about Neanderthals at a medical school, but when you consider the medically important genes that Neanderthals carried, suddenly it starts to make sense.

Continue reading “The Red-Headed Neanderthal: My lecture Thursday 12/16 at Yale Medical School” →

Quick note: I’ll be on the public radio show Word of Mouth show just after noon eastern time tomorrow (Wednesday 12/8) to talk about NASA’s cookie full of arsenic. You can listen live here. [Update: the podcast is posted now.]

Originally published December 7, 2010. Copyright 2010 Carl Zimmer.

One of the challenges of writing on deadline is that people are not waiting every moment of the day to answer your questions. My Slate piece on arsenic life was based on a dozen or so responses from an overwhelmingly skeptical group of experts. And now, an hour after my story went live, I got a reply from George Cody, a chemist at the Carnegie Institution who co-authored a major 2007 “weird life” report. Rather than let this thirteenth comment molder in my inbox, let me share it with you. It’s a bit technical but illuminating. I’ve condensed it for clarity (my clips marked by ellipses)–

Continue reading “And the skeptics keep chiming in…George Cody on arsenic life” →

Slate asked me to take a look at the scientific reactions emerging to last week’s big news about arsenic-based life. I got in touch with a dozen experts, and let’s just say, the results weren’t pretty. Check it out.

Originally published December 7, 2010. Copyright 2010 Carl Zimmer.