Mike, a geologist, writes: “Various stages of human evolution around a take of Da Vinci’s Vitruvian man.”
Click here to go to the full Science Tattoo Emporium.
Originally published December 2, 2008. Copyright 2008 Carl Zimmer.
Category: Blog
Having emerged from my turkey-induced coma, I have regained my powers of speech and am ready for two talks I’ve got this week:
Monday (today, December 1), I’ll be talking about science writing at a Master’s Tea at Saybrook College at Yale University at 4. It’s open to Yale students and faculty.
On Thursday at 7 pm I’ll be talking at Rockefeller University in Manhattan, as part of the NYC Skeptics Public Lecture Series. The title of the talk is “The Darwin Beat.” Here are more details. Admission is free.
Continue reading “Yale and Rockefeller U: This Week In Talk”
On bloggingheads.tv, I talk to Tyler Volk about the beautiful, dangerous carbon cycle. Check it out.
Originally published November 23, 2008. Copyright 2008 Carl Zimmer.
Last night I strapped on a bow tie and shot out my tuxedo cuffs, got in the car, and headed to the upper West Side to celebrate a global cataclysm. Actually, I was helping to celebrate the geologist who discovered the cataclysm. Walter Alvarez was receiving the Vetlesen Prize, the highest honor in the earth sciences.
Under the magnificent rotunda at Columbia’s Low Library, we sat down to dinner. Michael Purdy, the director of Columbia’s Lamont-Doherty Geological Observatory, kicked off the event by explaining that Alvarez was winning the award because he had changed the way earth scientists view the history of the Earth.
My experience with tuxedos has been limited to proms and weddings up until now, but today I’m renting a penguin suit for a most unexpected event: the geological equivalent of the Nobel Prize. Bet you didn’t know there was one! Actually, the Vetlesen Prize has been awarded every few years since 1959. This year’s winner is Walter Alvarez, who discovered the first clues that an asteroid plowed into the Earth 65 million years ago. The discovery was not just cool in and of itself, but changed the way scientists think about how surprising physical events can alter the course of evolution.