This week, She Has Her Mother’s Laugh came out in the UK. Many thanks to Ravi Mirchandani and the rest of the team at Picador for this lovely edition. (Amazon UK link)
The New York Times, August 9, 2018
About 50 million years ago, dog-like mammals returned to the seas, eventually evolving into whales and dolphins. Around then, too, an early cousin of elephants took the plunge, giving rise to manatees and dugongs.
About 20 million years later, bearlike mammals also waded back into the sea, evolving into seals, sea lions and walruses.
Each of these marine species adapted to the aquatic life in its own way. Manatees and dugongs slowly graze on sea grass. Seals and their relatives dive deep underwater after prey, but still haul themselves onto beaches to mate and rear pups.
Continue reading “Marine Mammals Have Lost a Gene That Now They May Desperately Need”
This turned out out be a busy news week. Here are three stories I wrote for the Times.
1. On Monday I wrote about “global greening.” That’s the increase in photosynthesis spurred by all the carbon dioxide we’re pumping into the atmosphere. It may sound like a lovely thing, but an expert on global greening I interviewed says it’s no reason to celebrate–or to stop looking for a way to fight climate change. Continue reading “Friday’s Elk, August 3, 2018”
The New York Times, August 2, 2018
In 2003, researchers digging in a mountain cave on the Indonesian island of Flores discovered astonishing fossils of a tiny, humanlike individual with a small, chimp-sized brain. They called the species Homo floresiensis.
These relatives of modern humans stood just over three feet tall. Several villages in the area, scientists noted, are inhabited by people whose average height is 4 feet 9 inches.
Was this the result of interbreeding long ago between taller modern humans and shorter Homo floresiensis? Fifteen years after the bones’ discovery, a study of the DNA of living people on Flores has delivered a verdict.
Continue reading “Bodies Keep Shrinking on This Island, and Scientists Aren’t Sure Why”
The New York Times, August 1, 2018
President Trump will nominate Kelvin Droegemeier, a well-regarded meteorologist who studies severe storms, to be director of the federal Office of Science and Technology Policy.
The director acts as the president’s chief adviser on science. The post has been vacant since Mr. Trump’s inauguration, by far the longest the office has been without a director since the position was created in 1976.
“I am deeply honored to have been selected by President Trump to serve the nation as director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy, and I look forward to the Senate confirmation process,” Dr. Droegemeier, 59, said in a statement.
Continue reading “Trump Finally Picks a Science Adviser. And Scientists? They Seem Relieved.”