The October issue of Discover is just out, and it has my second brain column (following up on my first, on the perception of time). This time around, I take a look at our unconscious, considering just how powerful it can be. But don’t get too disturbed by that inner zombie. Our conscious minds are not just helpless moviegoers in the theater of the brain. They have work to do as well. Check it out.
Originally published September 15, 2008. Copyright 2008 Carl Zimmer.
Philosopher Kate Devitt writes, “I started my undergraduate degree in the history and philosophy of science. For our second wedding anniversary, my beloved proposed getting matching shooting star tattoos to immortalize our first date under the night sky. The Halley’s comet design from the Bayeux tapestry was a perfect way to celebrate.”
Carl: The Bayeux Tapestry includes a picture of Halley’s comet (see below in the lower right corner). But its subject was not love, but the Norman Conquest, which just so happened to coincide with a visit from the comet.
Click here to go to the full Science Tattoo Emporium.
Originally published September 13, 2008. Copyright 2008 Carl Zimmer.
Cancer is not just a terrible disease but a strange one. Tumor cells must switch on certain genes in order to thrive and multiply. You might expect that natural selection would have eliminated those genes, because they kill off their owners. Far from it. A number of cancer genes, known as oncogenes, have actually been favored by natural selection over the past few million years. Oncogenes, in other words, have boosted the reproductive success of their owners, and have even been fine-tuned by evolution.
Kim Handle, a science instructor at the New York Hall of Science writes: “Often laughed at here at the NY Hall of Science, it was delightful to stumble upon the Science Tattoos blog on the Loom. Thank you! Here’s my Pikaia, vertebrate fossil from the Burgess Shale.”
Carl: Here’s another Pikaia tattoo, and more information from the Smithsonian Institution on this early forerunner of fish (and us).
Originally published September 9, 2008. Copyright 2008 Carl Zimmer.
I’m happy to relay some new information about my book Microcosm: E. coli and the New Science of Life
1. Jersey! I’ll be returning to the Garden State where I spent my formative years, to speak next Wednesday at the Center for Science Writings at Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken NJ. For you New Yorkers, that’s a quick PATH ride under the Hudson.
The Center’s director, John Horgan, blogged the other day about the talk, having just read Microcosm. He even admits that the book made him question his long-held belief that science’s best days are over. I’ll be speaking at 4 pm at the Babbio Center. (Here’s a campus map.)
Continue reading “Microcosm Update: Reviews and an Impending Outbreak in Jersey”