We’ve all heard about the dire straits polar bears are facing if they lose their icy habitat to global warming. But just how many species may global warming drive extinct? One way to find out is to look over the mass extinctions of the past–and the picture there’s not pretty, as I explain in my new article, “Biodiversity in the Balance.” It appears today in the new publication Yale Environment 360, an online environment magazine from the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies. They’ve already got some pieces from some big names, like Bill McKibben and Carl Safina. So check the whole place out.

Continue reading “Hot Times in Deep Time: My New Piece for the New Yale Environment 360” →

My recent post about a striking new experiment in evolution (E. coli evolving the ability to eat a new kind of food) is still drawing lots of commenters and links. Very cool! Not so cool are the claims that this experiment is evidence of creationism, made by people who have not actually read the paper itself. Unfortunately, the paper is behind a subscription wall at the journal. Fortunately, the scientists have posted it on their own web site (pdf link). So go, read, and digest.

I’m also hoping that Zachary Blount, the grad student who pored over the trillions of E. coli in this experiment, will have time to respond to the many comments in the next few days. Stay tuned.

Continue reading “A New Step In Evolution, Cont.: Read the Paper” →

Chad writes, “Based on Huxley’s Man’s Place in Nature.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Ape_skeletons.png

Click here to go to the full Science Tattoo Emporium. 

Originally published June 13, 2008. Copyright 2008 Carl Zimmer.

Craig writes:

“I teach English at a community college in Kansas City. My tattoo is attached. You might wonder why I am sending a tattoo of a sailing ship to you. That’s not just any ship: it is the Beagle, in a famous image as it anchored off of the Galapagos. Darwin has long been one of my main intellectual heroes. In addition, I do teach science (evolution and climate change at various times) in writing classes because the “debates” about each represent much that is wrong with public discourse today and because we have a theme of informed citizenship in those classes; it is impossible to be an informed citizen without some understanding of what science is and how it works. For both of those reasons, teaching science in college writing classes is both relevant and very interesting”

Continue reading “Voyaging” →