In tomorrow’s New York Times, I have a story about some very fun research–the study of the world’s biggest gulp. Some new research indicates that the biggest species of whales eat by gulping their own weight in water every thirty seconds. They do so in much the same way a parachute stops a race car.
Here’s the article.
Here’s the podcast (I come on at about 8:30)
Here’s the original paper.
The New York Times, December 8, 2007
Seymour Benzer, a geneticist who made scientific history by discovering that genes were structured like words and who went on to do pioneering work on the ties between genes and behavior, memory and longevity, died on Nov. 30 in Pasadena, Calif. He was 86.
The cause was a stroke, according to a statement from the California Institute of Technology, where he was a professor emeritus.
Dr. Benzer was born in New York City to immigrants from Poland. On summer vacations in the country as a boy, he had his first experiences in studying biology, catching frogs and dissecting them.
Continue reading “Seymour Benzer, Geneticist, Is Dead at 86”
I’ve set up a web page for the workshop I’ll be teaching at Yale next month. If I had to sum up my line of work in four hours, a few things to read, and one writing assignment, this would probably be it.
Originally published December 8, 2007. Copyright 2007 Carl Zimmer.
Here is my first obituary in the New York Times, for Seymour Benzer. (It was pure coincidence, apparently, that they contacted me a couple days after I blogged about Benzer here.) It’s a nerve-racking experience summing up someone’s life in a few hundred words, especially a life as jam-packed as Benzer’s. Here’s one of many things that didn’t make it in: Benzer’s quest to find the genetic basis for loving spicy Asian food (via Jim Hu)
Originally published December 7, 2007. Copyright 2007 Carl Zimmer.
“I did my Ph. D on olfaction in sea turtles, sequencing the olfactory receptor genes of the three species featured in my tattoo (leatherback, loggerhead and green). The “bubbles” represent DNA.”–Dr. Michelle Vieyra, University of South Carolina.
Congratulations, Dr. Vierya–your submission is the 100th addition to my Flickr set of science tattoos. Make full use of your bragging rights.
[See also New Scientist’s droll blog coverage of this project.]