One of the pleasures of teaching a writing class at Yale is that I can rope in some excellent writers to give talks there. Next Monday, Richard Preston, author of The Hot Zone, The Wild Trees, and many other books and New Yorker articles, will be coming to New Haven to give a public lecture. Please join us!

When: September 20, 2010, 5:30 p.m.

Where:
Burke Auditorium, Kroon Hall
Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies
195 Prospect St.
New Haven, CT

Originally published September 13, 2010. Copyright 2010 Carl Zimmer.

Melinda writes,

I have attached a photo of my Dirac Equation tattoo, which I obtained a few months ago. I am really happy with it. In fact, it caused quite a stir at the Yuri’s Night celebration at NASA Ames. I’m a physics student and research at the University of California, Santa Cruz. I currently conduct research analyzing gamma ray radiation from astronomical sources (blazars and pulsars mainly) with Cerenkov detectors located in Amado, Arizona…Side Note: The equation was written up on a LaTeX document and stenciled from there. Doesn’t get much nerdier than that!

Continue reading “Science Ink: I want your skin! [Science Tattoo]”

The evolutionary biologist George Williams died on Wednesday at the age of 84. He was one of the most important evolutionary biologists of the twentieth century, although he’s not a familiar name beyond scientific circles. Gently, persistently, he reformulated how we think about natural selection and its many effects. As Richard Dawkins noted today, “He was one of the great evolutionary thinkers of my lifetime.”

Continue reading “George Williams has died: Reflections and an interview”