I’m heading cross-country to talk about Microcosm. First stop–Powell’s bookstore in Portland tonight. Never been there before, so I’m looking forward to a bibliophile’s pilgrimage. Hope to see Portlanders there! 

Originally published June 1, 2008. Copyright 2008 Carl Zimmer.

In case you couldn’t make it to my World Science Festival panel this afternoon, check out my conversation with co-panelist/journalist/book author Peter Pringle on bloggingheads.

Originally published May 31, 2008. Copyright 2008 Carl Zimmer.

I’m heading to the New York Botanical Gardens to moderate a World Science Festival panel on crops, biodiversity, seed banks, and the amazing life of the Soviet scientist Nikolai Vavilov. (For some background, see this New Yorker article from last year.)

If you come to the panel, stick around for the Cafe Scientifique afterwards. And check out the “Darwin’s Garden” exhibit. You’ll find me snooping around the cycads and ferns. 

Originally published May 31, 2008. Copyright 2008 Carl Zimmer.

E. coli is, arguably, the one species that scientists know best. If you type the name “Escherichia coli” into PubMed, the database of the National Library of Medicine, you’ll get over a quarter of a million titles of scientific papers. Scientists have sequenced about 30 genomes of different strains of E. coli. It’s the microbe of choice for those who want to figure out how to tinker with life. There’s one problem with all this attention–how are scientists supposed to make sense of all this data? Scientists have created sites to aggregate E. coli data in one place. The newest and broadest site is now up: E. coli Hub. To put the site in historical context, the scientists who set it up asked me to write an essay. It’s now online here. 

Continue reading “All Things E. coli” →

I would love to introduce him to a certain resident of his gut. (Hat tip: Tree of Life)

Originally published May 30, 2008. Copyright 2008 Carl Zimmer.