Next month, my first co-authored book is coming out. Evolution: Making Sense of Life is a textbook for biology majors, and my co-author is Doug Emlen, a professor at the University of Montana. I’ve heard many tales of disastrous collaborations between scientists and science writers, and so I don’t enter into them lightly. But working with Emlen has been a delight. No matter how many times we’ve had to rewrite a chapter, he threw himself into the work as if he was cannonballing into a swimming pool. And yet somehow Emlen was advancing his own research in evolutionary biology at the same time, quietly chugging away on some remarkable experiments. And today–just a week after we shipped our book off to the printers–Emlen’s latest, most intriguing paper has just come out in the journal Science.
This post was originally published in “Download the Universe,” a multi-author blog about science ebooks edited by Carl Zimmer.
Going to Extremes. By James Lawrence Powell.
Guest reviewed by Dan Fagin
July 25, 2012
Continue reading “Going to Extremes: An Ebook About the Climate Forest and the Weather Trees”
[Note: This is the last of a four-part series:
Part Two: The Mystery of the Missing Chromosomes, Continued: An Update From Your Preening Blogger
Part Three: Four Days of Fusion Chromosome Freak-Out]
For the past five days, I’ve been trying to get an answer from creationists. Today, I finally got it. And it’s an instructive lesson in how creationism makes itself irrelevant to the progress of science. Plus, it’s a good opportunity to look at the delightfully sloppy way our chromosomes evolve.
This post was originally published in “Download the Universe,” a multi-author blog about science ebooks edited by Carl Zimmer.
An Unexpected Twist. By Andy Borowitz.
Reviewed by Seth Mnookin
July 23, 2012
Continue reading “An overstuffed colon and a perfectly sized Kindle Single”
[Note: This is the third of a four-part series
Part Two: The Mystery of the Missing Chromosomes, Continued: An Update From Your Preening Blogger
Part Four: And Finally the Hounding Duck Can Rest]
On Wednesday, I asked creationists for evidence. Over the past four days, I’ve been ordered to buy their book, offered it for free, invited to a debate and to guest blog. I’ve also been accused of lies and misdemeanors, of harassing innocent creationists, and of being a duck. Actually, a hounding duck. But I still haven’t gotten my answer.
There is, of course, a lesson here. Continue reading “Four Days of Fusion Chromosome Freak-Out”