Happy Groundhog Day’s Eve!
I wanted to start off with a note to Friday’s Elk readers in the Los Angeles area. On Thursday, February 6, I will be speaking in the Aloud Series at the Library Foundation of Los Angeles. I’ll be in conversation with Sean Carroll, Caltech physicist, author, and podcaster extraordinaire. We’ll be at the Mark Taper Auditorium-Central Library. Hope to see you! You can register here.
This past month, I took a look at evolution’s imprint on us, as well as a great step that took place two billion years ago to our level of complexity.
Air Pollution, Evolution, and the Fate of Billions of Humans. Air pollution–whether from coal-fired plants or climate-change-driven wildfires–can be devastating to our health. Along with lung damage, it’s also being linked to diseases ranging from diabetes to Alzheimer’s. But we have been breathing in airborne toxins for millions of years. I write about how our evolutionary history may provide clues to our current state of health.
This Strange Microbe May Mark One of Life’s Great Leaps How did our cells get complex two billion years ago? Here’s my story about the epic struggle to grow a weird microbe from the ocean floor that offers crucial clues.
Ancient DNA from West Africa Adds to Picture of Humans’ Rise Five years ago I wrote about the first ancient human DNA found in Africa. Scientists have come a long way, discovering a mysterious lost people they call the “Ghost Modern.”
Neanderthal Genes Hint at Much Earlier Human Migration From Africa. I write about a new look at the DNA of Neanderthals and ourselves. It reveals that our histories are intertwined further back in time than previously thought–and that everyone on Earth today is a little bit Neanderthal.
I spoke recently about She Has Her Mother’s Laugh at the Coolidge Theater in Brookline, Massachusetts. It was part of the national Science on Screen series, which pairs talks about science with screenings of great old movies. I chose Flirting With Disaster, a movie that you can tell was made in the 1990s because they never mention DNA. You can watch my talk here.
My award-winning book, She Has Her Mother’s Laugh, is now out in paperback. You can order it now from fine book mongers, including Amazon, Barnes and Noble, BAM, Hudson Booksellers, and IndieBound.
You can find information and ordering links for my books here. You can also follow me on Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads, and LinkedIn. If someone forwarded this email to you, you can subscribe to it here.
Best wishes, Carl
Originally published February 1, 2020. Copyright 2020 Carl Zimmer.