Congratulations to my colleague across the sea, Ed Yong, for scoring first place in 3 Quark Daily’s science prize. Yours truly snagged second place for my post on the Neanderthal genome. And a toast of the morning coffee to Margaret Morgan for her post on the evolution of chloroplasts.

I see an interesting pattern here. My piece focused on signs of interbreeding between humans and Neanderthals. Ed wrote about gut bacteria picking up genes from marine bacteria as an adaptation for eating sushi. And Morgan wrote about how protozoans gobbled up photosynthetic bacteria and gave rise to plants and green slugs and other wonders. I wonder if the judge, Richard Dawkins, has horizontal gene transfer on his mind? From The Selfish Gene to The Slippery Gene?

Originally published June 21, 2010. Copyright 2010 Carl Zimmer.

Luke writes, “I’m about to start postgrad studies in biochemistry but currently work in a bacteriology diagnostics lab. Working with the nasty side of E. coli all day long makes it easy to forget how important the little guy is to science – I definitely have a soft spot for it now though! I was recently in Amsterdam and wanted to get a tattoo done while I was there. I happened to be reading your book Microcosm at the time and decided to get an E. coli tattoo on my foot. I only found the Science Tattoo Emporium today and was quite surprised to discover that it’s curated by the same person who inspired the tattoo!”

You can see the rest of the Science Tattoo Emporium here  or in my book, Science Ink: Tattoos of the Science Obsessed.

Originally published June 19, 2010. Copyright 2010 Carl Zimmer.

The Tangled Bank gets a three-page review in the latest issue of Evolution, the world’s leading journal on evolutionary biology. The reviewers, Judith Bronstein and Peter Reinthal of the University of Arizona, have very kind things to say. Here are a few of the passages that made me smile:

Continue reading “Evolution Reviews The Tangled Bank: “Radical”” →

Two years ago I noted that George Orwell had started a blog. Or, rather, Orwell’s diaries began to be posted, day by day, online. I liked the idea at first, but after a while I drifted away. The initial entries came from a relatively quiet time in Orwell’s life, dealing with stuff like how many eggs he got from his chickens on a given day.

But there’s nothing like a war to make life all too interesting:

It is impossible even yet to decide what to do in the case of German conquest of England. The one thing I will not do is to clear out, at any rate not further than Ireland, supposing that to be feasible. If the fleet is intact and it appears that the war is to be continued from America and the Dominions, then one must remain alive if possible, if necessary in the concentration camp. If the U.S.A is going to submit to conquest as well, there is nothing for it but to die fighting, but one must above all die fighting and have the satisfaction of killing somebody else first.

[Image: Wikipedia]

Originally published June 17, 2010. Copyright 2010 Carl Zimmer.

In my latest column for Discover, I take a look at epigenetics and the brain. Along with the genetic circuitry in the DNA of our brain cells, we also have an additional layer of molecules that can switch genes on and off. A lot of this so-called epigenome gets locked into place when our brains are first developing, but it still remains malleable throughout our lives. Our environment can rework our epigenome, and some studies suggest that this reworking may produce long-term changes in personality. Even mental conditions like depression may be partly epigenetic. And if we can figure out how conditions like depression alter the epigenome, we may be able to re-alter it to counter those disorders.

For some reason, epigenetics is getting burdened with a lot of sensationalist quasi-mysticism these days. Epigenetics does not overturn everything we ever knew about everything. But it’s possible for something to be woo-free and cool at the same time, as I hope my column makes clear. Check it out.

[Image: U.S. Army Center of Military History]

Originally published June 17, 2010. Copyright 2010 Carl Zimmer.