One of the most interesting features of Google’s new social media service, Google+, is Google+ Hangout On Air. A group of people get onto G+ all at once, fire up their computers’ cameras, and have a conversation. Google puts whoever is speaking at the moment on the main screen. You can join a hangout if it’s public or if you have an invitation, and–coolest of all–it automatically records the conversation and throws it onto Youtube.

Continue reading “Parasite mind-control, ebooks, and killer flu: My first Google+ Hangout video” →

In the March issue of Smithsonian, I profile Thomas Seeley, a Cornell scientist who has spent forty years pondering how honeybees make up their collective minds. His discoveries reveal some striking parallels between honeybee swarms and our own brains. There are even some lessons we can learn from bees about how to run a democracy.

Reporting this story involved some of the weirdest experiences I’ve ever had, as the introduction to my piece illustrates:

Continue reading “The Hive Mind Reader: My Smithsonian profile of Thomas Seeley” →

By weird coincidence, on the same day I announce the launch of an ebook review, I get to enjoy some of the harsh realities of the ebook business. Over the past year I’ve published two collections of my pieces about the brain, Brain Cuttings and More Brain Cuttings. I just found out that Amazon has decided, for now, not to sell them. (Here’s some background.)

You still have lots of options for getting your hands on these ebooks.

Scott & Nix, the publisher, offers both titles in pdf and epub formats. (Brain Cuttings, More Brain Cuttings)

Barnes & Noble sells then for the Nook. (Brain Cuttings, More Brain Cuttings)

Apple sells it in them iBookstore. (Brain Cuttings, More Brain Cuttings)

Update: Publisher’s Lunch has the details of the showdown between Amazon and Independent Publishers Group over Kindle titles.

Originally published February 22, 2012. Copyright 2012 Carl Zimmer.