I went to the Los Angeles Book Festival this weekend and was very impressed. Bibliophiles swarmed over the UCLA campus like literary army ants, and it seemed like every event of the day was packed. That included the panel discussion I was in, about science. My co-panelists were Avery Gilbert, a fellow finalist for the LA Times Science Book Prize, and Leonard Susskind, who won for his book on black holes. KC Cole, our moderator, managed to keep this herd of cats on the straight and narrow by having each of us answer her questions about science in general with our own particular examples from out books on black holes, the sense of smell, and E. coli.
Author: Matt Kristoffersen
Alison, a high-school physics teacher, writes: Continue reading “I am Shiva, The Physics Teacher Of Worlds [Science Tattoos]”
Later this week I’m heading out to Los Angeles for the book festival. I’ll be part of a panel Saturday morning at 10:30 on science books, moderated by KC Cole. My fellow panelists, Avery Gilbert and Leonard Susskind, are also among my fellow finalists for the Los Angeles Times Science Book Prize, which will be announced Friday night. So it’s possible that if you come see the panel the next day, one of us will have a particularly big smile on our face.
Originally published April 22, 2009. Copyright 2009 Carl Zimmer.
Yesterday I wrote about how conservation biologists are debating the value of moving species to protect them from climate-change-driven extinction. As a follow-up (or an antidote), check out “Blood for no oil: Our obsession with climate change is killing off animals left and right.” in Slate.
Brendan Borrell, biologist turned journalist, argues that climate change poses a genuine threat to biodiversity, but “it does not come close to the immediate, irreparable damage caused by the destruction of habitat.” Good old chainsaws are still the big danger, he argues, because two-thirds of the world’s biodiversity is in the tropics, where deforestation is happening fast and the effects of climate change may not be as dramatic as they’ll be closer to the poles.
Two years ago I learned about an idea for saving species from climate-triggered extinction: move them some place nice. Here’s a piece about the concept that I wrote at the time for the New York Times. Over the past two years, more evidence of climate-induced changes to diversity has accrued. And now some scientists have actually moved some animals to test the possibility that assisted migration could help. But the idea has also now triggered some intense opposition from critics who call it a game of ecological roulette.
I’ve revisited assisted migration (now known as managed relocation) for a new piece for Yale Environment 360. Check it out.
Originally published April 20, 2009. Copyright 2009 Carl Zimmer.