Hannah Rosa writes: “I am a Science teacher in Central London. My tattoo is part of the Ext-inked project and my endangered species is the narrow bordered bee hawk moth. I decided to sign up for the project as I have worked closely with endangered species in the field as part of my degree studies and understand the importance of closely monitoring and preventing the extinction of these species. I wanted to become a life long ambassador so that I can educate others about the impacts of climate change and other human activites which are threatening hundreds of species in the UK alone.”

(For more pictures from the Ext-inked project, visit Flickr.)

Click here to go to the full Science Tattoo Emporium.

Originally published December 12, 2009. Copyright 2009 Carl Zimmer.

I will be speaking at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst on Friday. It will be my final lecture on evolution this year–the last of nine (whew). They don’t call it the Year of Darwin for nothing…

Here are the details. It’s free and open to the public, so I hope to see you there.

View Larger Map

Originally published December 9, 2009. Copyright 2009 Carl Zimmer.

Did the new Post op-ed by Sarah Palin on global warming get the same multi-layered fact-checking as George Will? Sigh. Deltoid has the details.

Originally published December 8, 2009. Copyright 2009 Carl Zimmer.

My latest podcast is about the ways viruses jump the species fence and give rise to new diseases. I talk to evolutionary biologistPaul Turner, who runs experiments in which viruses evolve to attack new hosts. Plus, how viruses have sex and why.

For more on Turner’s work, here’s an article I wrote about him a few years back.

Originally published December 8, 2009. Copyright 2009 Carl Zimmer.

This is good. Parasites have made it to the Colbert Report. It’s no secret that Stephen Colbert is a modern sort of Mr. Wizard (see his stuff on electromagnetism, microbes, and naming new species of spiders). Now Colbert introduces the nation, nay, the world, to a fish parasite that plays the part of the fish tongue.

Continue reading ““Let’s Haunt Their Dreams Forever”” →