Category: Blog
Over at Download the Universe, we’ve added another crop of entertaining reviews about ebooks that you definitely should–or, in some cases, definitely should not–check out:
Continue reading “Lost voyages to the North Pole and more: Catching up with Download the Universe”
We’ve learned a lot about how the brain works from functional magnetic resonance images. I should clarify: we’ve learned a lot about the human brain. Thousands of people have volunteered to lie down inside fMRI scanners and have the activity in their brains monitored as they perform different kinds of mental tasks, or even just do nothing at all. We must resist the temptation to look at the pretty fMRI images and think they’re just photographs of the mind. They’re actually more like very complex, statistically worked-over graphs. But even with those caveats, there’s a lot to learn from them. But fMRI only works if you hold very, very still. Having been scanned myself for a story a few years back, I can vouch that this experience takes a lot of patience, and a high tolerance for loud buzzing noises and for narrow, confined spaces. Scientists have managed to take fMRI scans of monkeys and rats, but they’ve either been knocked out cold, or restrained so the images of their brains don’t blur. If you can persuade a gorilla to lie peacefully in the bore of a scanner for half an hour and look at pictures of bananas, do let us know.
Earlier this year, TEDMED took place in Washington DC, showcasing people doing innovative research in medicine. This year’s talks are now being loaded online, and today I was happy to see that cancer and evolution got their due. Franziska Michor of Harvard explained how the threat of cancer is a legacy of our evolution into multicellular animals, and how every case of cancer is a miniature unfolding of evolution within our own bodies. What makes Michor’s work particular exciting is that she is bringing the mathematical precision of population genetics and other aspects of evolution to the treatment of cancer.
I wrote about some of Michor’s work in my 2007 Scientific American article, “Evolved for Cancer?” (carlzimmer.com, sciam.com) I’ve also explored cancer evolution here on the Loom: “Inside Darwin’s Tumor” and “The Mere Existence of Whales.” And you can find lots of Michor’s papers as free pdf’s on her publication page.
Originally published May 11, 2012. Copyright 2012 Carl Zimmer.
At some of my recent talks, I’ve been running into people who’ve been annoyed that they forgot to bring a book of mine to get signed. You really couldn’t think of a better way to cheer up a writer, and so I feel the need to reciprocate.
So if you’ve gotten a book of mine and want to get it signed, I’ve printed up some bookplates that I can autograph and send to you.
Continue reading “You ask for signed bookplates, you get signed bookplates”
Gothamites: please join Florence Williams and myself at the bookstore McNally Jackson in New York on Thursday May 17. Williams is the author of the new book, Breasts: A Natural and Unnatural History, a smart, wry synthesis of evolution, physiology, microbiology, environmental science, and even biomechanics.
Where: McNally Jackson, 52 Prince St., New York, NY (Phone: 212.274.1160)
When: May 17, 7 pm.
More details are here.
Originally published May 9, 2012. Copyright 2012 Carl Zimmer.