Category: Blog
Over the past year or so I’ve been engaging in a bit of science-writing masochism. I’ve been asking a few short questions and trying to get some answers from people who’ve spent years grappling with them. For example:
What is life? (in Seed)
What is a species? (in Scientific American)
What is intelligence? (also in Scientific American)
In tomorrow’s New York Times, I tackle my next question: What is a gene?
If all goes according to plan, at 6:50 am tomorrow morning I will not just be awake, but sitting in a studio in New Haven, talking on the Takeaway, a morning news show on NPR. Some stations will broadcast it live; others at later times. And it will also end up on their podcast.
I have to wait until later today to explain the topic; for now, let’s just say it’s a long view of cool biology.
[Note–that’s Eastern standard time]
Originally published November 10, 2008. Copyright 2008 Carl Zimmer.
On Thursday evening, I’ll be talking about Microcosm at the Guilford Free Library just down the road here in Guilford, Connecticut. It’s great to be talking in this lovely space on the Guilford Green, reopened at last after a year-long renovation. Here’s a flyer with more information. The event is free, but the library is taking reservations by phone at 203-453-8282.
Originally published November 10, 2008. Copyright 2008 Carl Zimmer.
Andrew, a marine biologist writes, “I call it ‘the balance of the deep.’ Two hydrothermal vent endemic gastropods to commemorate my first deep-sea cruise. The one on the top is Alviniconcha hessleri and the one on the bottom is Ifremeria nautilei.”
Carl: For more on these cool critters–which live at the bottom of the sea around vents that spew scalding water, getting their food from chemical-feeding bacteria that live inside special organs in their bodies–check out Deep Sea News.
This morning as I was about to board a plane, my phone rang. A reporter with Scientific American wanted to ask me about my father’s campaign for the US Senate. She wanted to talk to me, a science writer, about my father’s experience with science as a Congressman from New Jersey and as a Senate candidate.
As a journalist, I’ve never written about my dad. For the most part, I think it’s a bad idea for science writers to dispense political opinions anywhere except over a beer. We’re entitled to our views like anyone else, but we should not blur the line between our views and the science we write about.