This August I will be teaching a week-long writing course on Appledore Island in the Gulf of Maine. Last year, the first time around, we had a blast, embarking on an Ahab-like quest for hagfish, observing the role played by mind-controlling parasites in the ecology of the island’s tidal zone, learning how to use broken 300-year-old pipe stems and cod ear bones to reconstruct American’s first economic boom, and much more. (Here are some articles the students wrote about their experiences.)

This year promises to be just as much fun (and intense).

The deadline for registering is April 16. You can register and get more information on the course page at the Shoals Marine Lab web site. (Shoals is jointly run by Cornell and the University of New Hampshire.) For those beyond college interested in the class, here are some details about taking the course non-credit.

Originally published April 5, 2010. Copyright 2010 Carl Zimmer.

A couple of my articles are included in a new book, The New York Times Reader: Science and Technology. Edited by S. Holly Stocking, it’s an anthology that can stand on its own, or serve as reading for a journalism class. Here’s a description of the book from the publisher’s web site:

Science writing poses specific challenges: Science writers must engage their audiences while also explaining unfamiliar scientific concepts and processes. Further, they must illuminate arcane research methods and statistics and at the same time cope with scientific ignorance and uncertainty. Stocking’s volume not only tackles these challenges, but also includes extraordinary breadth in story selection, from prize-winning narratives, profiles and explanatory pieces to accounts of scientific meetings and new discoveries, Q&As, traditional trend and issue stories, reviews, essays and blog posts. These Times exemplars, together with Stocking’s guide to reading stories about science and technology, are perfect for science writers who aspire to diversify and hone their reporting and writing skills in a changing media climate. Holly Stocking is an experienced science writer, award-winning teacher, and a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

You can order it from CQ Press. Here’s the Amazon page, too.

(Hat tip: Leigh Boerner)

Originally published April 5, 2010. Copyright 2010 Carl Zimmer.

I’ll be giving a talk at the Museum of Science in Boston on Saturday, April 17. It’s the keynote address at the annual meeting of the Massachusetts Academy of Science. I’m going to talk about spangled dinosaurs, how scientists are splashing colors all over the history of life, and what all that color can tell us about evolution.

My talk is just one part of an all-day celebration of science for all ages. (The entire Zimmer clan will be in attendance.) For information on registration and tickets, visit the meeting web site.

Originally published April 5, 2010. Copyright 2010 Carl Zimmer.

At the AAAS meeting a few weeks back, I sat down with Lindsay Patterson of the radio show EarthSky to talk about evolution. Here’s a new 90-second piece that’s now airing.

Originally published April 5, 2010. Copyright 2010 Carl Zimmer.

There’s a certain kind of headline I have become sick of: “Scientists Have Sequenced the Genome of Species X!”

Fifteen years ago, things were different. In 1995, scientists published the first complete genome of a free-living organisms ever–that of a nasty germ called Haemophilus influenzae. Bear in mind, this was in the dark ages of the twentieth century, when a scientist might spend a decade trying to decipher the sequence of a single gene.

Continue reading “Yet-Another-Genome Syndrome” →