I’ve just been checking out one of the oldest pieces of sculpture made by humans. The Smithsonian Institution has set up a major web site on human evolution. There’s lots of stuff worth exploring on the site, although there are still some bugs and some of the stuff is unnecessarily obscure for a site intended for us non-paleoanthropologists. I’m particularly fond at the moment of the 3-D scans of ancient artifacts that you can rotate around on your computer. Check out the lion-man, for starters.

[Image: Wikipedia]

Originally published March 12, 2010. Copyright 2010 Carl Zimmer.

Good news! My brother Ben has been appointed the new language columnist for the New York Times Magazine, taking over from the late William Safire. Expect a few more shamelessly fraternal links next week to various appearances associated with his new position.

Continue reading “Big Brother News…” →

The Tangled Bank just got a great review in CBE-Life Sciences Education, a journal from the American Society for Cell Biology about teaching science. Scientific journals roll out their reviews a lot more slowly than newspapers and magazines, but in this case, it was worth the wait. Randy Moore, a University of Minnesota biologist who has done great work in defense of the teaching of evolution, leaves me trying to decide which line I want to drop, blurb-like, onto my web site…

“The best textbook I’ve seen for a nonmajors introductory biology course about evolution.”

…or maybe–

“The Tangled Bank is well-produced, up-to-date, readable, and exceptionally well illustrated. At no point does it falter.”

or maybe the last line of the review…

“Read The Tangled Bank. You won’t be disappointed.”

Thanks for the embarrassment of [blurb] riches.

Originally published March 8, 2010. Copyright 2010 Carl Zimmer.

Todd Disotell of New York University writes,

As an evolutionary primatologist, I had a tattoo of Charles Darwin’s first drawing of an evolutionary tree put on my forearm to commemorate his birthday last year. This year for my birthday, I had Carolus Linnaeus‘ original 1735 definition of the order Primates tattooed onto my other forearm.

Click here to go to the full Science Tattoo Emporium.

Originally published March 6, 2010. Copyright 2010 Carl Zimmer.

E. coli that can count? In my new podcast, I talk to James Collins, an engineer-turned-biologist who helped usher in the science of synthetic biology ten years ago. We talk about the challenges of getting cells to do what you want them to, and what synthetic biology will look like in 2020. Check it out.

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