In a couple weeks I head to Texas to the annual meeting of the American Society of Parasitologists to talk about parasites in pop culture. The symposium is called, “Parasitology: Public awareness through literature, art, and film.” Our panel has lots of creepy movie clips in store, plus other sorts of media including books and this humble blog. But maybe we’ll need to tack on “music” to the end of that list in the symposium title. Inspired by a post of mine on the gorey glam of Ampulex compressa , the emerald cockroach wasp, a band called Super Duper has composed a song. The video is below, and the lyrics below that…
Category: Blog
Amy writes, “I am a marine biologist and I find jellyfish intriguing. I just thought a jellyfish would make a cool marine bio tattoo.”
Click here to go to the full Science Tattoo Emporium.
Originally published June 9, 2008. Copyright 2008 Carl Zimmer.
Thursday I’ll be heading up the road to talk about Microcosm at one of my favorite bookstores: RJ Julia in Madison CT. The talk is at 7, and it’s free. And for once I don’t have to fly to a talk. Here are the details. Hope to see some Connecticut Loom-readers there.
Originally published June 9, 2008. Copyright 2008 Carl Zimmer.
Imagine that mad scientists defied nature and violated the barriers between species. They injected human DNA into non-human creatures, altering their genomes into chimeras–unnatural fusions of man and beast. The goal of the scientists was to enslave these creatures, to exploit their cellular machinery for human gain. The creatures began to produce human proteins, so many of them that they become sick, in some cases even dying. The scientists harvest the proteins, and then, breaching the sacred barrier between species yet again, people injected the unnatural molecules into their own bodies.
Robin writes, “I recently graduated from Bard College. My senior thesis in biology used zebrafish as a model organism, and in honor of this and the three previous years I spent working with this animal, I got a tattoo of one. He’s a male, as one can tell by the all green fins and the slim belly.”
Click here to go to the full Science Tattoo Emporium.
Originally published June 8, 2008. Copyright 2008 Carl Zimmer.