This week of all things Darwin seemed like a good time to share some news about a project I’ve been working on for the past few months. It’s a book called The Tangled Bank: An Introduction to Evolution.

The inspiration for the book came from a conversation I had last year with the folks at Roberts & Company, a publishing company. They had noticed a growing number of classes about evolution for non-biology-majors, and asked if I’d be interested in writing a textbook for them. I was excited by the prospect of being able to bring together the things I’ve learned and written about over the past few years, as evolutionary biologists have made a string of surprising new advances in understanding the history of life (many of which I’ve written about here at the Loom).

Continue reading “The Tangled Bank”

The New York Times, February 9, 2009

Link

Michael Sanderson is worried. Dr. Sanderson, a biologist at the University of Arizona, is part of an effort to figure out how all the estimated 500,000 species of plants are related to one another. For years now the researchers have sequenced DNA from thousands of species from jungles, tundras and museum drawers. They have used supercomputers to crunch the genetic data and have gleaned clues to how today’s diversity of baobabs, dandelions, mosses and other plants evolved over the past 450 million years. The pace of their progress gives Dr. Sanderson hope that they will draw the entire evolutionary tree of plants within the next few years. “It’s within striking distance,” Dr. Sanderson said.

Continue reading “Crunching the Data for the Tree of Life”

There are perhaps ten million species on Earth, joined together by common ancestry. But even 3000 species are practically impossible to represent on a single evolutionary tree. So how shall we ever see the tree of life (especially if it’s also a web in parts)? That’s the subject of my latest article in tomorrow’s New York Times, “Crunching Data for the Tree of Life.” It’s one of a set of stories the Times is publishing in observation of Darwin’s birthday. Check them all out.

(Image: Hillis lab)

Continue reading “Google Earth for The Tree of Life”

In honor of Darwin’s birthday, Forbes publishes a piece by Young-Earth creationist Ken Ham. US News and World Report publishes another piece by another Young-Earth creationist, Henry Morris III.

Sorry guys, but I just can’t find the strength to link to your stunts.

Thanks to Pharyngula and Knight Science Journalism Tracker for spoiling my afternoon. (Huh, that’s funny–I was able to link to them.) 

Originally published February 6, 2009. Copyright 2009 Carl Zimmer.