The blog 3 Quarks Daily awards an annual prize for the best science blog post of the year. This year, Harvard physicist Lisa Randall is judging the entries. The deadline is May 31 11:59 pm EST. If there’s a blog post that has really stood out in your memory from the past year (since May 22, 2010 to be precise), go here to nominate it.
Originally published May 28, 2011. Copyright 2011 Carl Zimmer.
The World Science Festival is going to kick off on Wednesday in New York (I’ll be speaking Thursday on a panel, on telling the stories of science in print and online.) The festival organizers have been publishing a blog on some of the topics that will be explored next week. Riffing on the session on sleep, I’ve just contributed a piece on some wonderful recent research on what it means for us to be asleep and to be awake–and the surprising porous wall that divides the two states of mind. Check it out.
Originally published May 28, 2011. Copyright 2011 Carl Zimmer.
It’s been six months since #arseniclife became one of my favorite hashtags on Twitter. Over at Slate, I look at how the online conversation has changed the way scientists do their work. Check it out.
Originally published May 27, 2011. Copyright 2011 Carl Zimmer.
Today I close out a month-long guest blog over at the University of Chicago Press to mark the publication of my book A Planet of Viruses. I’ve been talking with experts about some of the most thought-provoking areas of virus research–
1. Can viruses control our minds?
2. Should we eliminate smallpox?
3. How can we use viruses to cure disease?
Today I talk with Penny Chisholm of MIT about the viruses that fill the worlds oceans (a billion in every spoonful). They kill off half the bacteria in the ocean every day, dumping out carbon and having enormous ecological effects–and perhaps even effects on the planet’s climate. Chisholm and I speculate on whether we could use viruses to manipulate the planet as a whole. It’s extreme speculation to be sure–but, then again, when it comes to viruses, the truth can sometimes seem too fantastic to be real. Check it out!
Originally published May 27, 2011. Copyright 2011 Carl Zimmer.
Slate, May 27, 2011
Cast your mind back six months, to late November 2010. Wikileaks had unveiled the first goodies from its cache of 250,000 State Department cable. Hosni Mubarak’s National Democratic Party was coasting toward yet another easy win in Egyptian elections. And, for just a few days, a lot of us wondered if NASA had discovered aliens.
If you’ve forgotten about that otherworldly dalliance, today is a good time to refresh your memory. On Nov. 29, NASA announced that it would soon hold a press conference to “discuss an astrobiology finding that will impact the search for evidence of extraterrestrial life.”
