For those who may have come to the Loom after seeing me talking about autumn leaves on ABC News this evening, you can learn more about the science in these posts (plus this article I wrote for the New York Times).

Scientists continue to investigate why leaves change colors–check out this new post yesterday from Voltage Gate.

(I should also clarify that the damage leaves suffer in the fall can come from charged atoms within the leaf, rather than directly from the sun’s photons.)

Update: Link to the ABC news segment added.

Continue reading “Fall Foliage: The Backstory” →

A quick note: I just found out I’ll be on the ABC evening news tonight, about 5 minutes before the end of the show, talking about the mystery and glory of autumn leaves. I’ll post a link when I find it.

Update: Voila. 

Originally published October 30, 2007. Copyright 2007 Carl Zimmer.

I’m sometimes asked who my favorite science writers are. I don’t like science writers per se; I like science writing, or rather some science writing–the passages and chapters and books that remind me just how good science writing can get, just how high above the wasteland of hackery, dishonest simplification, and cliches it can rise. This morning by chance I stumbled across a recording from 1996 of John McPhee reading one of those passages (he reads from one of his geology books at about 6:20). It has the added bonus of an explanation far more clear than I could offer as to why an English major would wind up as a science writer.

Continue reading “A Reminder of What Science Writing Can Be” →

Matthew Chapman, writer and producer, writes an op-ed calling for presidential candidates to have a debate on scientific issues. It’s an entirely reasonable piece, but if you stop to think about it, its publication raises two disturbing questions–

1. Why should anyone have to plead for science to be a topic of discussion among presidential candidates?

2. Why did I find this piece on the Washington Post web site filed under a tab called “On Faith”–a section dedicated to religion?

Continue reading “It’s Come To This?” →

It appears that I didn’t receive a single new science tattoo this week! Could it really be that on the entire planet, there are only 81 people passionate enough about their science to go under the needle? If so, thanks to everyone for a fascinating experiment. If not…keep them coming. 

Originally published October 26, 2007. Copyright 2007 Carl Zimmer.