The Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science , by Richard Holmes, has won the Royal Society Prize for Science Books. I haven’t read it, nor is its galleys sitting atop a stack of books I hope to get to. But it does look awfully good, and the Royal Society obviously agrees…Any Loom readers have a review to offer?

Update: I should really have entitled this, Congratulations, Richard Holmes. Books don’t appreciate good wishes very much.

Originally published September 16, 2009. Copyright 2009 Carl Zimmer.

Arnaud writes, “I am a geneticist interested in the processes that make every individual unique. This tattoo symbolizes a living being as the result of a ‘game of life’ where random and deterministic processes interacts together. Genes provide a solid framework, but random and external factors have an equally important role in determining who you are.”

Click here to go to the full Science Tattoo Emporium.

Originally published September 14, 2009. Copyright 2009 Carl Zimmer.

Uff da –quite a week!

Continue reading “To Cap Off A Multimedia Week, How About A Podcast?” →

Glad to see an old tongue-eating friend is back in the news.

Originally published September 11, 2009. Copyright 2009 Carl Zimmer.

Recently I took a trip down to North Carolina to spend some time with Brian Hare, an anthropologist at Duke University who wants to understand how human nature evolved. While Hare spends a lot of time in Africa studying chimpanzees and bonobos, he also studies dogs. The social intelligence of dogs is not just interesting in itself, but also for the clues it offers about how we evolved. It’s possible that wolves became dogs in much the same way our chimp-like ancestors became human.

In the newest issue of Time, I’ve written a feature about canine cognition, and scientists like Hare who are trying to plumb its depths. Check it out.

(And be sure to also check out the photoessay of Hare’s new Center for Canine Cognition at Duke, from which this picture comes.)

Originally published September 10, 2009. Copyright 2009 Carl Zimmer.