It sounds cool to say maybe the Internet has turned us all into one giant superorganism, as Robert Wright does today in the Opinionator blog at the New York Times. But before we bandy about cool-sounding words, it’s necessary to think hard about what they mean–particularly, what they mean to the biologists who first developed them as concepts.
Continue reading “Facebook Is Not A Brain, And Other Failed Metaphors”
[Updated! See bottom of post.]
As I continue to bake today, yearning for just a few minutes in Senator Inhofe’s igloo , I’ve been keeping tabs on a saddening train wreck over at my old haunt, Scienceblogs. Before I brought the Loom to Discover, I blogged at Scienceblogs, which was hosted by the folks behind the now-defunct (?) Seed Magazine. There was a lot I enjoyed about that time, and I still keep tabs on a number of excellent bloggers still at Scienceblogs. Except that, as of today, a lot of them are no longer there.
In April, I noted with sadness the passing of the artist (and friend) John Schoenherr. (His New York Times obituary appeared a few days later.) His son, the artist Ian Schoenherr, has been sifting through his mountain of paintings and other effects, and yesterday he launched a blog to publish interesting things as he comes across them.
It’s a wonderful way to celebrate a wonderful life full of bears, geese, astronauts, and, of course, giant alien sandworms. So check it out!
Originally published July 6, 2010. Copyright 2010 Carl Zimmer.
A couple years ago, Ed Yong, blogger/whippersnapper, asked his readers to describe themselves in a comment thread. It was a very successful experiment, one that many science bloggers have since replicated. Now Ed’s reviving the meme, which seems as good a time as any for me to join in (especially after a day so hot that my brain was parboiled inside my skull like some exotic delicacy). So, to quote from the memester:
In the comments below, tell me who you are, what your background is and what you do. What’s your interest in science and your involvement with it? How did you come to this blog, how long have you been reading, what do you think about it, and how could it be improved?
But really, these questions are a rough guide. I’m working on the basis that what you have to say will be far more interesting than what I think you might say.
So…who goes there? I’m curious.
Originally published July 5, 2010. Copyright 2010 Carl Zimmer.
Caitlin, a graduate student, writes: