The folks at 3 Quarks Daily are taking nominations for their second annual Prize in Science. The judge this year will be Richard Dawkins.

Continue reading “3 Quarks Daily Prize in Science: Nominations Are Open” →

A group of new blogs have launched at NYU’s Science, Health, and Environmental Reporting Program. In my capacity as Visiting Scholar there, I helped some of the students think through how to work blogs into their training at NYU. Mainly, I urged them to think about how to not be boring. I suggested they set up blogs that they themselves would actually want to write, and that weren’t like a lot of other blogs.

And they did! Kids these days.

So check out the whole blog roll, and offer your deeply insightful and constructive critiques. They’re waiting for you.

Originally published May 26, 2010. Copyright 2010 Carl Zimmer.

If you’re at ASM, I just want to let you know I’ll be at the ASM Press Bookstore from 1 pm to 2 pm on Wednesday. The bookstore is on the far right end of the lobby as you’re standing in front of the convention center. If you want to talk about the things I’ll be discussing this afternoon at 5:30 pm, come by. Also, ASM Press has signed copies of Microcosm for sale. See you there!

Originally published May 25, 2010. Copyright 2010 Carl Zimmer.

Stuart Pimm, a leading conservation biologist, is turning out to be a blogger to follow. He’s down in the Delaware Bay right now, studying some of the birds that are migrating unbelievable distances (see my story in today’s Times). Unfortunately, the birds are having a rough time because we’re taking away the food they need to power their long-haul flights: horseshoe crab eggs. Check it out.

Originally published May 25, 2010. Copyright 2010 Carl Zimmer.

I’m at the American Society for Microbiology Annual Meeting, swimming in a lot of excellent new research. I also just learned about a disease I never heard of before, with a truly awesome name: Burning Mouth Syndrome.

When I posted this on Twitter, the writerMichael Paul Mason immediately responded with his own favorite: Smoking Stool Syndrome.

So what’s your favorite?

Originally published May 25, 2010. Copyright 2010 Carl Zimmer.