If pubic lice are not the sort of thing you want to be seen reading about, let me give you the opportunity to close your browser window right now. But if you’re at all curious about the secret that pubic lice have been keeping for over three million years, the tale of a mysterious liaison between our ancestors and the ancestors of gorillas–read on.

Many parasites tend to stick close to their hosts. A parasitic wasp may wander through forests and fields to find a caterpillar from a single species of butterfly in which it will lay its eggs. Blood flukes taste the water of their ponds for molecules from human skin. 

Continue reading “Question of the Day: How Do You Get Crabs From A Gorilla?” →

Josh at Thoughts from Kansas makes some good points today about the need for more systematists (scientists who describe new species), launching his musings from an article in today’s New York Times about the remarkable Eastern Arc mountains by…d’oh! That was by me. Man, I have got to do a better job of staying ahead of the blogging curve. 

Originally published March 6, 2007. Copyright 2007 Carl Zimmer.

Forbes.com contacted me a few weeks ago to write a piece for a special report they were putting together on the theme of achievement. They asked me if I’d write something about “reproductive achievement.” As the father of two children–who will merely replace me and my wife in the human species count–I didn’t think I had much personal authority on the matter. And, frankly, the whole notion of success by progeny is not really all that it’s cracked up to be. After all, just about everyone alive a few thousand years ago is the ancestor of everyone alive today. 

Continue reading “You and Your Genes: Who Wins?” →

Just a quick note: I’m in the process of changing hosts for my web site, carlzimmer.com. Once the transfer is done, you should be able to get to the article archive, book pages, and all the rest once more. The down time shouldn’t last too long. The site will also be going through some long overdue overhauling. Believe it or not, the web site was built back in the twentieth century. Out with the vacuum tubes, I say. 

Originally published March 1, 2007. Copyright 2007 Carl Zimmer.

In January, Scientific American ran an article by me about the evolutionary roots of cancer, which you can read here (and about which I blogged here). Now, via Respectful Ignorance Respectful Insolence [d’oh!], I’ve discovered a new review on said subject in the March issue of the journal Nature Reviews Cancer. The review, “Darwinian medicine: a case for cancer,” is by Mel Greaves, of the Institute of Cancer Research in London. If you can get hold of the paper, it’s definitely worth a read.

Continue reading “Cancer and Evolution: The Beat Goes On” →