A wonderful review of Microcosm just came out in the Times of London. It’s particularly gratifying to see it written by Oliver Morton, a science writer gifted with grace and style…

[Zimmer] “comes up with turns of phrase and images that are deep delights. The ways in which the structure of the cell depends on the tempo of different molecular processes give it a ‘geography of rhythms’; the building of a flagellum, which takes longer than the bacterium’s replication, is like building a medieval cathedral, in that ‘a new microbe inherits a partially built tail and passes it on, still unfinished, to its descendants.

Continue reading ““Deep Delights”” →

Can we make a picture of history? Charles Darwin recognized that all the different species on Earth share a common ancestry, having branched apart over millions of years. He pictured the history of life as a tree, as he sketched here in one of his notebooks. He later published a more formal illustration of the tree of life–or at least the branching of evolution–in the Origin of Species. Later scientists put actual names to the branches. They proposed that birds and crocodiles share a close common ancestry, for example, based on traits they share in common in their skeleton and skin. Later studies–including comparisons of DNA–supported many of those relationships. Today scientists are comparing entire genomes in order to illuminate some of the murkier nooks in the tree.

Continue reading “Festooning The Tree Of Life” →

A couple weeks ago I spoke to a great crowd as part of the Zocalo lecture series in Los Angeles. The subject was my new book, Microcosm: E. coli and the New Science of Life. You can listen to the podcast here, [whoops–go to this page and look for my mug.) and the talk will be airing several times starting today on LA City Channel 36. I think that you will also be able to watch it on their web site live. Here is the schedule (all times PST):

7/15/08  Tue 2:00 pm

7/15/08  Tue 9:00 pm

Continue reading “Microcosm on TV” →

We’re all for open and objective discussions of scientific theories, right? Who wouldn’t be? If your kids are taking physics in high school, you want them to read critiques of gravity, right? After all, shouldn’t they know that there are some serious weaknesses in the theory of gravity? Right? For instance, the theory of gravity says that gravity makes things fall down. But planets don’t fall into the sun. They go around it. So which is it–down or around? Clearly the theory of gravity is deficient. Right?

Wrong, of course. You don’t teach critical thinking with patent nonsense.

Continue reading “Missing The Wrist” →

Earlier this year I wrote in the New York Times about the remarkable minds of hyenas. The evolution of their brains appears to have followed the same pattern ours have: an increasingly social life drives the expansion of some parts of their brains. This research is the work of Kay Holekamp, a zoologist at Michigan State University who has spent many years observing hyenas in East Africa. And now, continuing a trend that should strike fear into the heart of any science writer, another of my subjects has started a blog of her own. Notes from Kenya chronicles the adventures of Holekamp and her colleagues in their new field season watching spotted hyenas. (The picture above is from a recent spat they had with a lion.) Check it out.

Continue reading “Hyena blogging, live from the Serengeti” →