Russ writes:
“Podarcis sicula (Italian wall lizard) is native to Italy, and the nearby Mediterranean coast. It thrives in cities, and has probably been a human urban commensal for 2000 years. They and their congeners (P. muralis) have been introduced into many places in Europe, including France, southern England, and Germany. they may be the most widely introduced temperate reptile species.
I’ll be giving three talks in the next couple weeks in New York.
First up, my lecture at Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn Tuesday. It’s possible I’ll be able to post the video of the lecture later–I’ll let you know. (Out of curiosity–anybody know a good way to combine video and powerpoint slides online? I’ve seen it done, but not on any open social video sites.)
Then come two appearances in the World Science Festival.
Zach writes:
“It is a half sleeve up my upper right arm based around an image taken by one of the CERN bubble chambers. It is based on this image. I first saw that image my freshman year of college. It had the sublime, simple beauty that only something made of math and science can have. It stuck with me for 8 more years before I actually decided to get it etched into me. Oddly enough, on Valentine’s Day. I guess it was my Valentine’s to physics and science. Oh, and when people ask who drew it, I always respond ‘God.'”
Had another author told me his publisher was sending me a copy of a book on Escherichia coli, I would have been perhaps quietly unenthusiastic. But best selling science writer Carl Zimmer is a master story teller and superb researcher. He’s also renowned for effortlessly slipping a giant payload of scientific knowledge into the reader, sweetened with human drama, one so comprehensive a student struggling with a dry textbook would have had to hammer into their head over the course of an entire semester.
Blogging briefly from Chicago. Today’s talk at the Field Museum went well–I managed to lure a fair number of people inside from a beautiful spring afternoon to hear me talk about a gut germ. I also had a chance to walk through the fabulous Shedd Aquarium. The Field Museum has an aquarium of its own–filled with 520 million year old creatures. They set up three gigantic screens on which they have a mind-blowing animation of Cambrian animals–slithering, flapping, wiggling, and looking quite alien. I found it mesmerizing. The animators have a movie you can watch online, but if you ever get a chance to see it in person, do so.
