Category: Blog
I’m delighted to share the new cover of my next book, Life’s Edge: The Search for What It Means to Be Alive. It will be on sale in March 2021, but you can pre-order it now. Not only can you strike it off your to-do list, but you’ll be doing me a big favor, because lots of pre-ordered books translates into extra attention when the book actually goes on sale. I’ll be updating my web site with more information about the book as the publication date approaches.
I was asked to give the keynote talk at “Science, Journalism, and Democracy: Grappling With A New Reality” at Rockefeller University on September 6, 2017 (video). This is what I said.
We’re here at this meeting to talk about science, journalism, and democracy. So let me begin by telling you about a newspaper article on a scientific experiment, an experiment that would end up having a major influence on government policy on a vital issue.
The vital issue was food. The experiment was carried out on wheat. Some varieties of wheat are known as spring wheat. They’re planted in the spring and grow soon afterwards. Winter wheat, on the other hand, is planted in the fall but does not produce its flowers till the spring. Winter wheat has the advantage of a much bigger yield. But there’s a catch. Continue reading “Let’s Not Lose Our Minds”
I’m excited to let you know about a series of live events I’ll be presenting this fall in New York.
It’s called, simply, “What is Life?” I’ll be talking on stage, one-on-one, with scientists and philosophers about this fundamental question. We’re going to explore the latest insights science has provided us about how life began, how to find it on other planets, and how to think about it.
The events will take place at Caveat, a new Manhattan science-focused venue (complete with food and drink). The first one will be on September 6 at 8 pm. I’ll speak first to Carlos Mariscal, a philosopher from the University of Nevada, and then to Sara Imari Walker, a physicist at Arizona State University. Continue reading “Friday’s Elk, August 18, 2017”
After a long stretch of quiet here on the Loom, I wanted to let you know what I’ve been up to, and what I’m going to be up to over the next couple years. I’ve got some new projects afoot.
Fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva is an incredibly rare disease, striking just one out of every two million people. It’s also an incredibly astonishing disease. A single mutation to a single gene causes muscles to spontaneously turn into new bones. Over time, people with fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva (FOP for short) grow a second skeleton–one that can cut their lives short.
I wrote about FOP in “The Girl Who Turned to Bone” in the Atlantic in 2013. At the time, FOP served as a microcosm for the struggles of people with rare diseases. (In the United States, almost 30 million people have rare diseases of one kind or another.) Continue reading “Fighting the Second Skeleton”