I seem to have ended up as the Dinosaur Feather Color Bureau Chief at the New York Times. After discovering colors in fossil bird feathers, scientists found colors in dinosaurs last week. But this week another group of scientists has got the color pattern across a dinosaur’s entire body.
Imagine:Silver Spangled Hamburgs of the Jurassic!
Image courtesy of National Geographic. Check out their 3-D version.
Originally published February 4, 2010. Copyright 2010 Carl Zimmer.
The New York Times, February 4, 2010
Until last week, paleontologists could offer no clear-cut evidence for the color of dinosaurs. Then researchers provided evidence that a dinosaur called Sinosauropteryx had a white-and-ginger striped tail. And now a team of paleontologists has published a full-body portrait of another dinosaur, in striking plumage that would have delighted that great painter of birds John James Audubon.
“This is actual science, not ‘Avatar,’ ” said Richard O. Prum, an evolutionary biologist at Yale and co-author of the new study, published in Science.
I’ll be a judge again this year for the National Academies Communication Award, a $20,000 prize for excellence in reporting on science. The prize is awarded in four categories:
The nominations are now open. More information can be found here.
Originally published February 3, 2010. Copyright 2010 Carl Zimmer.
One of the most mind-blowing things I learned about while writing my book Microcosm: E. coli and the New Science of Life was the incredibly diversity of microbes that call our bodies home. These microbes outnumber our cells by about ten to one, and collectively they have thousands times more genes than found in the human genome. E. coli may be the most familiar of these lodgers, but it is just small player in an inconceivably complex ecosystem on which our health depends.
So I was very excited to interview Rob Knight of the University of Colorado, a biologist who’s been co-authoring a string of stunning papers recently on the thousands of species that live on our skin, in our mouths, in our guts, and elsewhere on or in our bodies. Our conversation is now available on the latest “Meet the Scientist” podcast. We talk about how microbes help each other thrive in our bodies, the way bacteria in our guts release neurotransmitters, how microbes may regulate your weight, and much more. Check it out.
Originally published February 3, 2010. Copyright 2010 Carl Zimmer.
Thanks to the UK Times for including The Loom among their top science blogs. It’s great company to be in, including fellow Discover blogs Bad Astronomy and the Intersection. I am just going to assume that the Times has not yet discovered Cosmic Variance, because its omission is a gross oversight.
I also think their description of the Loom as “authoritative science writing” may be a bit of an oversight, too (as flattering as it maybe). I mean, really: Duck porn? Tattoo parlors? Cockroach zombies? Other adjectives come to mind…
Originally published February 3, 2010. Copyright 2010 Carl Zimmer.