This is good. Parasites have made it to the Colbert Report. It’s no secret that Stephen Colbert is a modern sort of Mr. Wizard (see his stuff on electromagnetism, microbes, and naming new species of spiders). Now Colbert introduces the nation, nay, the world, to a fish parasite that plays the part of the fish tongue.

Continue reading ““Let’s Haunt Their Dreams Forever””

Long-time readers of this blog will be aware of my Ahab-like obsession with George Will’s global warming errors in the Washington Post–and the Post’s hollow claims to have carefully fact-checked him. I confess that I’ve let a couple of his more recent columns slip by. But I had to stop to blog about his latest take on global warming, in which he jumps on the recently stolen emails among climate scientists. He does a remarkable job of making no sense at all. Continue reading “George Will: Uncheckable?”

Over the course of the year, Science has published a series of essays in honor of Charles Darwin. I’ve had the pleasure of writing several of them (on the origin of life, the origin of eukaryotes, and the origin of sex). And now I’ve had the pleasure of writing the final one in the series, on the origin of the future–in other words, where evolution goes from here. Check it out. (Plus, if you’re interested, you can listen to a conversation I had about the future of life on Science’s podcast.)

Originally published December 4, 2009. Copyright 2009 Carl Zimmer.