[As of 3/17 2 pm, the poll is closed. Thanks to everyone who responded. Results to be posted soon!]
[Update, 2 pm: Thanks for the big turn-out for my survey below. If you have trouble accessing it to enter your information, try again later today. I am hammering out some kinks right now. And I’ll crunch the numbers once the responses start to taper off.]
Continue reading “The Science Reader: Help Me Draw A Profile”
The New York Times, March 15, 2010
The word “phocomelia” means seal limb. It describes an extremely rare condition in which babies are born with limbs that look like flippers.
The long bones of the arms fail to develop, but fingers sometimes sprout from the shoulders. In some cases, the legs fail to develop, too. The French anatomist Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire coined the word in 1836, and it immediately sank into scientific obscurity for 120 years. And then, 50 years ago, it suddenly became all too familiar.
Continue reading “Answers Begin to Emerge on How Thalidomide Caused Defects”
Dave writes, “Following my degree in Zoology, I worked in public aquariums for several years before becoming a lecturer in Animal Science, so I’ve always has a bit of a “fishy” background! I’m also studying stress in marine fish for a research degree. I’ve always been fascinated by evolution, and to reflect this, I decided to get inked with a Haeckel — this is a medusa from Art Forms in Nature . Haeckel was clearly a proponent of evolution, and although his ideas weren’t 100% correct, the man could draw!
“The tattoo is courtesy of the always-brilliant Jon Nott of Guildford, Surrey (U.K.).”
Click here to go to the full Science Tattoo Emporium.
Originally published March 14, 2010. Copyright 2010 Carl Zimmer.
Today the Enlightenment and Thomas Jefferson were disappeared from Texas.
Here’s a live blog from this morning’s hearings at the Texas State Board of Education. (Emphasis mine.)
Here’s a message from Radiolab to my tattoo’d readers (you know who you are):
Hi, all, I’m with the National Public Radio-syndicated science show “Radiolab” that has a large national and international following (http://www.wnyc.org/shows/radiolab/). Mr. Zimmer appeared on our show last season, in the “Parasites” episode.
I’m in search of people who have tattoos of extinct species of plant or animal, ideally people in the greater New York City area. We’re trying to gauge the feasibility of doing a video piece on this subject for Radiolab. Please let us know via radiolab@wnyc.org if you are itching to share your extinct species tattoo story with our funky radio show!
Perhaps we’ll be calling it VideoLab soon?
Update: Be sure to send a copy to me, too, for the Tattoo Emporium.
Originally published March 12, 2010. Copyright 2010 Carl Zimmer.