The Open Notebook peers into one my articles

Posted on by Matt Kristoffersen

Siri Carpenter and Jeanne Erdmann have started a cool project called The Open Notebook, in which they talk to science writers about how they put together a particular story. For their latest dissection, they chose my New York Times story from last year on the microbes that swarm in our bodies. They talked to me about how I wrote that piece, and my approach to writing in general (short answer: chaos). They even included an audio excerpt from one of the interviews I did for the story. If you’re curious about the sausage around here gets made, check it out.

[Image: My microbiome Moleskine]

Fleas’ ‘Feet’ Unleash That Spectacular Leap

Posted on by admin

The New York Times, February 10, 2011

Link

One moment, the 10 fleas were happily sucking blood from hedgehogs being treated at Tiggywinkles Wildlife Hospital in Aylesbury, which, of course, is in England.

The next, they were being plucked from their comfortable home and transported to Cambridge, where they ended up in a glass box with a Styrofoam floor. From time to time, bright lights would flood the box, so that a high-speed camera could film them. And the fleas did what fleas do in times of crisis: they jumped.

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Lost in Face Space: My latest Discover column

Posted on by Matt Kristoffersen

I take a look at the science of facial recognition, and the puzzling ways it fails, in my column in the January-February issue:

Imagine that an eccentric psychologist accosts you. In his hand is a piece of paper with 20 pictures of roses. One of the pictures shows a rose in the flower bed you just passed, he says, and he asks you to pick its picture out from his lineup. The challenge would seem absurd—but if you were to change the roses to faces, nearly everyone could meet it.

Read the rest here….

Originally published February 7, 2011. Copyright 2011 Carl Zimmer.

Darwin Day: See you in Stony Brook!

Posted on by Matt Kristoffersen

Darwin turns 102 202 next weekend, and I’ll be celebrating by giving the Provost’s Lecture at Stony Brook University out on Long Island on Friday, February 11. It’s a fitting place to do so, seeing as it’s where so many evolutionary biologists are based–not to mention the fact that it was where the great George Williams worked until passing away last year. In my lecture I’ll be talking about the ways Williams transformed Darwin’s legacy in so many ways–by asking deceptively simple questions such as why we have sex and why we get sick.

Here are the details:

When: Friday, February 11, 7:30 pm

Where: Student Activities Center Auditorium, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY (pdf map of campus)

More informationhere.

Originally published February 3, 2011. Copyright 2011 Carl Zimmer.