Over the weekend I came across a wonderful illustration in a new paper that I’ve goosed up (thanks, open access!). The subject of the paper is the way our proteins work together. Many proteins work by first joining together with other proteins to form what are known as complexes. Which naturally raises the question: how did different protein complexes evolve from common ancestors?

To attack this question, Dutch researchers decided to compare two species in which protein complexes have been very carefully catalogued: yeast and humans.

Continue reading “Your Yeasty Network” →

If I wasn’t so swamped this week by deadlines and hosting birthday parties, I’d be rambling on and on about a great new study that suggests parasites make up a huge chunk of ecosystems, simply by sheer weight. I’ll have more to say in the not too distant future, but in the meantime, check out this post at Not Exactly Rocket Science or listen to a good segment on National Public Radio that also includes some important caveats from outside researchers. If you want some back story, you can read this piece I published about the ecological impacts of parasites in Discover some years ago, adapted from my ode to the monsters within, Parasite Rex.

Continue reading “The Parasite Colossus” →

John Horgan, science writer and director of the Center for Science Writing at Stevens Institute of Technology, has set up a very interesting site. In the 1990s he interviewed a series of leading scientists and philosophers, publishing a string of profiles in Scientific American that ultimately became his provocative 1998 book, The End of Science. Horgan must be quite the pack rat, because he still has all the tapes of his lengthy interviews, and he’s now putting them on line. His latest: the philosopher Thomas Kuhn, who championed the idea that science goes through revolutions as paradigms shift.

Continue reading “Under The Hood of The Science Writing Sedan” →

At their best, blogs tell you something you didn’t know, in the same way you learn something from an interesting person you meet at a party. John Wilkins, a philosopher of science, has just such a post up at Evolving Thoughts. He addresses the strangely enduring meme, “If we evolved from monkeys, then why are there still monkeys?”

While the entire post is enlightening, I was especially taken by a detail. In the mid-1700s Carl Linnaeus established the first large-scale system for classifying species. Linnaeus once declared, “There are as many species as the Infinite Being produced diverse forms in the beginning.” I was aware that his religious views did not stop him from putting humans (Homo sapiens) in the primate order.

Continue reading “If We Evolved From Monkeys…” →

Here are a fresh batch of reviews for Microcosm: E. coli and the New Science of Life…

Cleveland Plain-Dealer: “For readers who enjoy a seat at the revolution and a chance to ponder the ‘supple little bugs’ at the dawn of life, Microcosm’ is a bracing read. This timely book deserves shelf space near Lewis Thomas’ classic, ‘Lives of a Cell.'”

Continue reading “Blogs and Newspapers: Three New Microcosm Reviews” →