Contact Us

Posted on by Carl Zimmer

The editors of Download the Universe welcome correspondence from readers, writers, and publishers. We are interested in finding out about new and upcoming ebooks about science–from Kindle Singles to Ipad apps and beyond. (Please note that we are not interested in ebooks that are just digital clones printed books.)

We are continually trying to improve our site, and so we welcome suggestions for how this site can be more useful as a source of for ebook readers.

You can contact individual editors by the links to their home pages in the right-hand column. General queries can be sent to Carl Zimmer.

While we will try to look at every submission, we won’t be able to respond to every one, nor do we guarantee posting a review of every ebook we get.

 

About Download the Universe

Posted on by Carl Zimmer

Download the Universe was born out of a conversation in January 2012. A group of writers and scientists had gathered at a meeting called Science Online to talk about the startling growth of ebooks. It was clear that ebooks were becoming an extraordinary new medium, rivalling print books in the marketplace and offering opportunities that printed books could not. We saw great things in the future of science books. There was just one thing missing: a way for readers to find out about new ebooks about science. Book reviews were showing little interest; blogs offered scant, diffuse attention. We agreed that what was needed was a science ebook review. Here it is.

Our mission is to give readers a growing guide to the world of science ebooks. We review books about science that only exist in the digital world–Download the Universe doesn’t include reviews of the automatic spin-offs of print books. But we define ebooks broadly. They may be self-published pdf manuscripts. They may be Kindle Singles about science. They can even be apps that have games embedded in them. We hope that we will eventually review new kinds of ebooks that we can’t even imagine yet. And we hope that you will find Download the Universe a useful doorway into that future.

Study Finds Virus to Be Fast Learner on Infecting

Posted on by admin

The New York Times, January 26, 2012

Link

Viruses regularly evolve new ways of making people sick, but scientists usually do not become aware of these new strategies until years or centuries after they have evolved. In a new study published on Thursday in the journal Science, however, a team of scientists at Michigan State University describes how viruses evolved a new way of infecting cells in little more than two weeks.

The report is being published in the midst of a controversy over a deadly bird flu virus that researchers manipulated to spread from mammal to mammal. Some critics have questioned whether such a change could have happened on its own. The new research suggests that new traits based on multiple mutations can indeed occur with frightening speed.

Continue reading “Study Finds Virus to Be Fast Learner on Infecting” →

Viruses learn new tricks, in real time: my story in tomorrow’s New York Times

Posted on by Matt Kristoffersen

Charles Darwin recognized that natural selection can make eyes sharper, muscles stronger, and fur thicker. But evolution does more than just improve what’s already there. It also gives rise to entirely new things—like eyes and muscles and fur. To study how new things evolve, biologists usually have to rely on ancient clues left behind for hundreds of millions of years. But in a study published today, scientists at Michigan State University show that it’s possible to watch something new evolve in front of their eyes, in just a couple weeks.

The scientists were studying a virus, which evolved a new way of invading cells. As a result, their research not only sheds light on a fundamental question about evolution. It also suggests that it may worryingly easy for viruses such as influenza to turn into new epidemics. Check it out.

[Image of lambda virus: AJC1 on Flickr via Creative Commons]

Originally published January 26, 2012. Copyright 2012 Carl Zimmer.

Archaeopteryx: The Embargoed Tattoo

Posted on by Matt Kristoffersen

A fair number of scientists like to get a tattoo to celebrate their research. Ryan Carney, a biologist at Brown University has taken the practice one step further. He’s gotten a tattoo that shows the key finding of a paper he and his colleagues have just published today. They studied a fossil feather from Archaeopteryx, the iconic bird (or almost-bird). They conclude it looked just like this tattoo.

Carney collaborated on the research with a team of scientists who have developed a method to reconstruct colors from fossils. One source of colors in animals is a cellular structure called a melanosome. Depending on the size, shape, and spacing of melanosomes, they can produce a range of hues. It turns out that melanosomes are incredibly rugged, sometimes enduring for millions of years.

Continue reading “Archaeopteryx: The Embargoed Tattoo” →