Dan Weston writes, “Given your interest in Moby Dick and tattoos, I thought you might appreciate my recent tattoo, based on an illustration by Rockwell Kent from the 1930’s edition (that I inherited from my grandmother and have read so many times that I had to have it rebound).”

Clearly, Dan has read my post from last year, “Herman Melville, Science Writer.”

For years I owned a copy of Moby Dick with Rockwell Kent’s dream-like engravings. The book disappeared a while ago, but the pictures remain how I see the story. The Plattsburgh State Art Museum has an online gallery of Kent’s illustrations here; I’ve reprinted the source of Dan’s ink below.

I think I need to buy myself another copy as a birthday present.

You can see the rest of the Science Tattoo Emporium here or in my book, Science Ink: Tattoos of the Science Obsessed.

Originally published July 7, 2013. Copyright 2013 Carl Zimmer.

I’m off this week for an extended Fourth-of-July break. I won’t be writing any new posts here (except for a pointer to my “Matter” column in the New York Times on Thursday).

But with nearly ten years of archives, I can offer some old favorites to read in the meantime, from oldest to newest:

Continue reading “Some of My Favorite Loom Posts To Tide You Over” →

I’ve lived in central Connecticut for ten years now, and so I missed their last emergence here in 1996. I was looking forward a June deafened by the songs of lovesick male cicadas, but my month turned out to be disappointingly quiet.

And yet, when my two daughters paid a visit to friends who live just seven miles away, they came home with a shoebox full of exoskeletons.

This year’s cicada emergence was anticipated by many millions of people in the eastern United States, but many of them missed it. But that doesn’t mean that the brood was a bust. Instead, it tells us something about they mysterious seventeen-year cycle of the cicadas.

In today’s New York Times I take a look back at Swarmageddon 2013, and look at what scientists learned about the bugs thanks to some newly invented tools. Check it out.

And see you next year in Iowa!

Originally published July 1, 2013. Copyright 2013 Carl Zimmer.

Jon Clarke writes, “As an avid cyclist and physics teacher, I had a tattoo a few months ago on my calf, and wondered whether that would fit with your archive. Having been given a cycle computer a year ago, I was frustrated and surprised that no matter how hard I cycled–on a level road without a tailwind or fast-moving large vehicle to shadow–I could never reach the UK speed limit in built-up areas (30mph). After some thought, I concluded that the dominant effect, and therefore limitation, was the power required to overcome aerodynamic drag for turbulent flow.”

In this tattoo, v is the speed of a bicyclist, and P is the rate at which muscles have to do work in order to overcome air resistance. If you double your speed, you have to work eight times harder. It is, in other words, a tattoo of human limitation.

You can see the rest of the Science Tattoo Emporium here or in my book, Science Ink: Tattoos of the Science Obsessed.

Originally published June 30, 2013. Copyright 2013 Carl Zimmer.