This spring I blogged about some marvelous videos made by scientists at Brown University in their quest to understand how bats manage to be bats. Turning your hands into membrane-lined wings makes for some awkward trade-offs. Moving around on the ground, for example, gets to be a special challenge. Bats have not simply evolved a single solution to these trade-offs, however. Instead, they’ve explored lots of different compromises. While many bats can only creep awkwardly on the ground, for example, vampire bats can actually gallop.
Author: Matt Kristoffersen
Carl Buell, who illustrated many lovely critters for my new book The Tangled Bank, has been adding some new paintings to his Flickr stream. Here’s his holiday ground sloth.
In the caption, he writes: “I’ve certainly drawn and painted enough of them over the past 15 years. Ground sloths are a favorite subject. Too big to hide from the weather, this big guy just hunkered down and slept through the storm. It’s hard to imagine these guys in snow, but Megalonyx ranged as far north as Alaska. Another Card idea that never got off the ground.”
Card or not, I’m glad he’s sharing his handiwork.
Originally published December 12, 2009. Copyright 2009 Carl Zimmer.
This fall I gave a number of talks about the flu, and how evolutionary biologists are helping to make sense of this vexing virus. The University of British Columbia, where I spoke in November, has posted the lecture I gave there on YouTube. For ease of viewing, I’ve embedded all six segments of the talk below.
A few caveats. A couple labels got lost in the conversion of my Keynote to Powerpoint during the preparation of the video. And the numbers I gave for the 2009 H1N1 flu are now a bit out of date. As of this week, the Centers for Disease Control estimate that about 50 million people in the U.S. have come down with the new flu strain since it first hit the country in April. 2009 H1N1 is responsible for just about all the flu so far this year. For the past few weeks it has been subsiding, but it may come back for another whack at us in a few weeks. Meanwhile, there hasn’t been any seasonal flu yet. Of the people who contracted 2009 H1N1 in the United States, about 10,000 have died. (As I mention in the talk, 36,000 people a year die of the seasonal flu in the U.S.)
And now, without further ado, I give you the flu! Continue reading “Darwin Gets Swine Flu: The YouTube Edition”
Hannah Rosa writes: “I am a Science teacher in Central London. My tattoo is part of the Ext-inked project and my endangered species is the narrow bordered bee hawk moth. I decided to sign up for the project as I have worked closely with endangered species in the field as part of my degree studies and understand the importance of closely monitoring and preventing the extinction of these species. I wanted to become a life long ambassador so that I can educate others about the impacts of climate change and other human activites which are threatening hundreds of species in the UK alone.”
(For more pictures from the Ext-inked project, visit Flickr.)
Click here to go to the full Science Tattoo Emporium.
Originally published December 12, 2009. Copyright 2009 Carl Zimmer.
I will be speaking at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst on Friday. It will be my final lecture on evolution this year–the last of nine (whew). They don’t call it the Year of Darwin for nothing…
Here are the details. It’s free and open to the public, so I hope to see you there.
Originally published December 9, 2009. Copyright 2009 Carl Zimmer.