Over at Download the Universe, we’re continuing to explore the growing world of science ebooks. Here’s the latest batch of reviews:
Continue reading “A Hot Planet and a Twisted Gut: Catching Up With Download the Universe”
Author: Matt Kristoffersen
Next month, my first co-authored book is coming out. Evolution: Making Sense of Life is a textbook for biology majors, and my co-author is Doug Emlen, a professor at the University of Montana. I’ve heard many tales of disastrous collaborations between scientists and science writers, and so I don’t enter into them lightly. But working with Emlen has been a delight. No matter how many times we’ve had to rewrite a chapter, he threw himself into the work as if he was cannonballing into a swimming pool. And yet somehow Emlen was advancing his own research in evolutionary biology at the same time, quietly chugging away on some remarkable experiments. And today–just a week after we shipped our book off to the printers–Emlen’s latest, most intriguing paper has just come out in the journal Science.
[Note: This is the last of a four-part series:
Part Two: The Mystery of the Missing Chromosomes, Continued: An Update From Your Preening Blogger
Part Three: Four Days of Fusion Chromosome Freak-Out]
For the past five days, I’ve been trying to get an answer from creationists. Today, I finally got it. And it’s an instructive lesson in how creationism makes itself irrelevant to the progress of science. Plus, it’s a good opportunity to look at the delightfully sloppy way our chromosomes evolve.
[Note: This is the third of a four-part series
Part Two: The Mystery of the Missing Chromosomes, Continued: An Update From Your Preening Blogger
Part Four: And Finally the Hounding Duck Can Rest]
On Wednesday, I asked creationists for evidence. Over the past four days, I’ve been ordered to buy their book, offered it for free, invited to a debate and to guest blog. I’ve also been accused of lies and misdemeanors, of harassing innocent creationists, and of being a duck. Actually, a hounding duck. But I still haven’t gotten my answer.
There is, of course, a lesson here. Continue reading “Four Days of Fusion Chromosome Freak-Out”
Here’s a video of a great talk about the evolution of whales that anatomist Joy Reidenberg gave at the recent PopTech conference. You may have seen her on the show Inside Nature’s Giants. Here’s my profile of Reidenberg this spring in the New York Times, in which I focused on what it’s like to take apart whales for a living.
Joy Reidenberg: Weird whales from PopTech on Vimeo.
Originally published July 20, 2012. Copyright 2012 Carl Zimmer.