Chris Mooney (the subject of a Loom post over the weekend) and Sheril Kirshenbaum have brought their blog, The Intersection, to Discover. I think I’ve been reading the Intersection ever since it started, years ago. Mooney and Kirshenbaum focus on the intersection (hence the name) of science and culture in all its manifestations, from scientific literacy to the way science gets treated by the government. Even when I’ve disagreed with them, I’ve found them thought-provoking. So be sure to check them out.

Originally published March 24, 2009. Copyright 2009 Carl Zimmer.

A meteorologist who asked to remain anonymous writes:

This tattoo is of a cumulonimbus (thunderstorm) cloud with bolts of lightning. My childhood fascination with weather led to a career in it. Storms are embedded in my psyche & soul, and during a stormy time in my life I decided to embed a storm in my skin. I sketched a cumulonimbus cloud for the tattoo artist, and he and the other people in the parlor said something along the lines of, “Dude, we can make that tubular!” and this is how it turned out. It retained meteorological accuracy via the bit of an “anvil” in the upper right and is comparable in structure to the storm in this photo , but without any color.  That’s fitting since it represents personal storms as well as atmospheric ones, but perhaps someday I’ll get another tattoo that’s not so dark, to represent brighter days.

 Click here to go to the full Science Tattoo Emporium. 

(With apologies to Mr. Zimmerman )

Originally published March 22, 2009. Copyright 2009 Carl Zimmer.

Thirty-four days ago, George Will published a column in the Washington Post that was loaded with erroneous statements about global warming. Many people, your humble scribe included, laid out the fact-checking. The Washington Post editorial page editors claimed that they checked the column repeatedly, yet their ombudsman granted that perhaps it might have been a nice idea if somebody had called the scientists Will invoked as his authorities–scientists who themselves refuted him. Yet the Post has not published a correction to Will’s column. Instead, they published a second column on the subject from Will, in which he reiterated some of his earlier misleading statements and even managed to slip some new ones in.

Continue reading “Glaciers and Electrons” →

Bat in wind tunnel from Carl Zimmer on Vimeo.

When the evenings get particularly thick with mosquitoes where I live, I sometimes sit out in the yard with my daughters and look up at the fading sky. Before too long, a single bat will usually flit out of the nearby trees and start flying circles around the house, scooping up bugs along the way. We can barely make out the bat’s wings as it takes its laps, a flicker of membranes. And so it was a revelation to spend some time earlier this week with two Brown University biologists,  Dan Riskin  and  Sharon Swartz , watching slow-motion movies of bats in flight. There’s a lot going on up there.

Continue reading “How To Be A Bat [Life in Motion]” →

Chris Mooney has invited me to participate in an intriguing conference in New York in May called “The Two Cultures.” From the meeting website:

Continue reading “Two Cultures Come Together In May” →