We know that the 100 trillion microbes in the human body are important to our health. What’s harder to know is how to use them to make us healthy.
Normally, our resident microbes–the microbiome–carry out a number of important jobs for us, from fighting off pathogens to breaking down food for us. If they get disrupted, we suffer the consequences. Sometimes antibiotics can upset the ecological balance in our bodies so severely, for example, that rare, dangerous species can take over.
In 2009, I published The Tangled Bank: An Introduction. I intended it as a textbook for non-majors, as well as a guide to evolution for people looking for a thorough but non-technical account of how life has gotten to be the way it is. The project proved to be far more work than I had reckoned, but I was happy with how it turned out, especially thanks to the talented artists and designers I had the privilege to work with. The reception has been gratifying; the Quarterly Review of Biology, for example, called it “spectacularly successful.” A number of courses have adopted The Tangled Bank both in the United States and abroad.
It’s hard to believe that four years have rushed by since the book came out. A lot has happened in the world of evolutionary biology during that time, some of which I’ve tried to document here and in my articles. And so, next month, I’ll be publishing the second edition of The Tangled Bank.
Continue reading “The Tangled Bank 2.0, Ready For Pre-Order”
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.
The New York Times, July 4, 2013
In the pageant of life, we are genetically bloated. The human genome contains around 20,000 protein-coding genes. Many other species get by with a lot less. The gut microbe Escherichia coli, for example, has just 4,100 genes.
Scientists have long wondered how much further life can be stripped down and still remain alive. Is there a genetic essence of life? The answer seems to be that the true essence of life is not some handful of genes, but coexistence.
E. coli has fewer genes than we do, in part because it has a lot fewer things to do. It doesn’t have to build a brain or a stomach, for example. But E. coli is a versatile organism in its own right, with genes allowing it to feed on many different kinds of sugar, as well as to withstand stresses like starvation and heat.
Continue reading “How Simple Can Life Get? It’s Complicated”
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”