Category: Blog
Brian Switek writes,
I have an Allosaurus on my arm. Heart of Gold Tattoo artist Jon McAffee put it there a few weeks ago. I think the tattoo—designed for me by friend and artist Glendon Mellow—came out beautifully. Contorted into the classic dinosaur death pose, the Jurassic apex predator is an expression of my passions and aspirations.
Earlier this week, my editor at the New York Times asked if I’d write a story about a pair of new papers in Science detailing experiments on how insecticides affect bees. Bees have been in decline in many places, and scientists have been trying to figure out the cause–or causes–of their fall. These two new experiments represent a new wave of more realistic tests, taking place on farms instead of in labs. They’re also important because they were designed to look at what happens when bees are exposed to more realistic, sublethal doses. My story appears in today’s issue.
Continue reading “Declining Bees and Toxic Insecticides: Sources for A Complex Story”
Smithsonian recently asked me to interview Harvard biologist E.O. Wilson about his new book, The Social Conquest of Earth. You can read the Q & A on their web site.
Wilson and I spoke for quite a while, covering wide range of subjects. One particularly interest part of the talk addressed his ongoing attack on a major aspect of modern evolutionary theory, known as inclusive fitness. I reported on his attacks–and the response of his critics–in the New York Times in 2010.
Continue reading “A Smithsonian Q & A with E. O. Wilson: complete with outtakes”
Our 80 billion neurons form an estimated 100 trillion connections. Through those links surge the signals that make thought possible. Sebastian Seung of MIT has been calling for a full-blown atlas of those connections, because he believes it will help us understand how the brain works and how the brain makes us who we are. In the April issue of Discover, I pay a visit to Seung’s lab to see what he’s up to, and what he hopes for the future. Check it out.
I couldn’t be happier that this column is available a couple weeks before Seung will participate in a public debate about the connectome on April 2, hosted by myself and Robert Krulwich of Radiolab. The tickets were all snapped up about an hour and a half after becoming available online, but I will certainly report back afterwards about how it went.
Originally published March 21, 2012. Copyright 2012 Carl Zimmer.
On my way to give a keynote talk at a genome meeting in California, I noticed in the Hartford airport that the April issue of Wired is on the newsstand. And in that issue is a feature I wrote about fighting viruses, based on visits and interviews with scientists exploring new ways of doing battle with these invisible foes. It’s not yet on Wired’s web site yet (I’ll post a link when it goes online), but here’s the introduction for a taste:
Continue reading “Waiting for the Penicillin Moment: my new feature on antiviral drugs for Wired”