It’s time to add a new chapter to the Whale Chronicles….
…more below the fold…
Evidence from both DNA and fossils agree that whales evolved from hoofed mammals on land. At first they may have been occasional swimmers, only later evolving into meat-eaters hunting for prey in the water. Between about 50 and 40 million years ago, they became increasingly adapted to the sea. Paleontologists have found fossils of dozens of species of early whales documenting this transition.
Why are modern families so small? Could it have something in common with peacock tails? A fascinating essay in the new issue of Science is the basis of my newest column for Wired. And man oh man, are the commenters freaking out. Judge for yourself.
The Natural History of the Only Child
Originally published February 8, 2008. Copyright 2008 Carl Zimmer.
WIRED, February 7, 2008
Modern life means small families. Starting about two centuries ago, families in Western Europe began to shrink, and then – country by country, continent by continent – the rest of the world followed suit. The trend is so big that it may rein in the world population’s exponential growth, perhaps even causing it to stop growing altogether over the next century.
But exactly why families are shrinking is a mystery. Rising living standards seem to have something to do with it. It’s certainly true that as living standards rose in England – as children died less from diseases, as the country overall became richer – the size of the English family shrank.
I’ve got some more information about my upcoming talks. On February 27, I’ll be in Ottawa, delivering the Discovery Lecture at Carleton University. It will be called “The Darwin Beat: Dispatches from the Frontiers of Evolution.” Here’s the link to the lecture page.
More updates to come–I’ll post them here, over at carlzimmer.com, and on Facebook.
Update–Talk link fixed…
Originally published February 5, 2008. Copyright 2008 Carl Zimmer.
Via Tara Smith, I learned of the passing of Joshua Lederberg. I came to appreciate the full scope of Lederberg’s work while working on my book Microcosm; by discovering the secret sex life of E. coli, he helped build the science of molecular biology. It’s sad to observe the passing of this scientific cohort who together uncovered some of the fundamental secrets of life, including Lederberg’s wife Esther, Seymour Benzer, and Francis Crick. Today we live in an age of big biology; Lederberg won his Nobel prize in large part for the work he did in near solitude as a graduate student. We may not see their likes again.