Friday’s Elk, March 11, 2016

Posted on by Matt Kristoffersen

Greetings–

An exciting week!

A Big Honor

Stephen Jay Gould, the late Harvard paleontologist, was a master of bringing evolution to a wide audience in books like Wonderful Life and The Panda’s Thumb. The Society for the Study of Evolution now honors his legacy with the Stephen Jay Gould Prize. I’m delighted to be this year’s winner. I’ll be giving a public lecture in conjunction with the award ceremony. If you’re in Austin on June 17, please come by. Details here. Continue reading “Friday’s Elk, March 11, 2016” →

Staying Afloat in the Rising Tide of Science

Posted on by Matt Kristoffersen

Cell, March 10, 2016

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As a science writer, I often start my day with some words from scientists. Sometimes those words are in a new scientific paper. But very often they come in other forms. I check my RSS reader for new blog posts from scientists such as paleoanthropologist John Hawks and virologist Vincent Racaniello. I check in on Twitter, where geneticist Daniel Macarthur may point to an interesting new study or dispense some snark on a hyperventilating newspaper article. If I’m feeling a deep urge to procrastinate, I may head to YouTube to watch cosmologist Sean Carroll explain the arrow of time. When that’s over, I may glance at the podcast app on my phone to see if there’s a new episode of Story Collider—a series made up mostly of scientists telling stories before a live audience. As I listen, I might get distracted by a thump outside the front door: a review copy of a new book written by a scientist—perhaps Frans de Waal writing about animal cognition or Bryan Fry writing about snake venom.

Continue reading “Staying Afloat in the Rising Tide of Science” →

Unappetizing Experiment Explores Tools’ Role in Humans’ Bigger Brains

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The New York Times, March 9, 2016

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Scientists recently turned Harvard’s Skeletal Biology Laboratory into a pop-up restaurant. It would have fared very badly on Yelp.

Katherine D. Zink, then a graduate student, acted as chef and waitress. First, she attached electrodes to the jaws of diners to record the activity in the muscles they use to chew food. Then she brought out the victuals.

Some volunteers received a three-course vegetarian meal of carrots, yams or beets. In one course, the vegetables were cooked; in the second, they were raw and sliced; in the last course, Dr. Zink simply served raw chunks of plant matter.

Continue reading “Unappetizing Experiment Explores Tools’ Role in Humans’ Bigger Brains” →

Friday’s Elk, March 4, 2016

Posted on by Matt Kristoffersen

Greetings–

This week brings a virus double-header about strange ways to fight those pesky buggers…
 

A Virus With Its Own Immune System?

Over at Stat, I wrote about giant viruses, the weirdest viruses of all. For one thing, these viruses are so big, they get infected by their own viruses. This week giant viruses got even weirder, when scientists reported that they may have an immune system of their own to fight their viral enemies. (Image courtesy of American Scientist) Continue reading “Friday’s Elk, March 4, 2016” →

Study Finds Surprising Benefit of Viral DNA: Fighting Other Viruses

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The New York Times, March 3, 2016

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What could be more alien than a virus? It’s a nanobiological weapon — a microscopic protein shell holding a few genes that hijack a cell’s internal machinery, forcing it to make new viruses. The battles we fight with these alien enemies brings malaise, scars and even death.

Yet as foreign as viruses may seem, the boundary between us and them is turning out to be remarkably blurry. We use DNA from viruses to do things that are essential to our own survival, scientists are finding. Somehow, we have managed to domesticate some of these invaders.

Continue reading “Study Finds Surprising Benefit of Viral DNA: Fighting Other Viruses” →