Greetings–
This week I was in Baltimore to partake in the annual meeting of the American Society for Human Genetics, partly to find material for my next book on heredity, and partly to look for good stories to report. I envisioned a few peaceful days kicking back in dimly lit rooms, gazing at Manhattan plots. But news waits for no one, and so I ended up on the phone a fair amount of the time to file a couple stories. To wit:
–Why do elephants get so little cancer?
I’m pretty obsessed with the ways that cancer has shaped evolution. We’ve evolved lots of anti-cancer defenses, and so have other animals. I’ve previously written about how naked mole rats appear to use a special protein to put the brake on fast-dividing cells. This week in my New York Times “Matter” column, I looked at a pair of studies on elephants. The mortality rate from cancer is lower in elephants than in us–even though it should, in theory, be far higher. It looks as if they have a strategy of their own to fight the disease.
–The first ancient African genome
Here’s another obsession: the illumination of human history with ancient DNA (see this piece I wrote in June on the history of Europe). In the news section of Friday’s issue New York Times, I report on how scientists discovered a 4500-year-old skeleton of a man in Ethiopia and then retrieved his entire genome from his bones. His DNA contains some surprises–clues that living Africans are not “pure” Africans.
—Undark, a new magazine
Next spring, a new science magazine called Undark will launch, and I’ll be on the advisory board. I’ll give more details about it closer to its debut.
–Let’s not infect Mars, okay?
Business Insider asked me to sit down with them and talk about some science news. The first video of that conversation is now out. I talk about life on Mars, and my worry that we may have contaminated it already.
–And finally, a list of upcoming talks
Later today (October 9) at 3 pm, I’ll be at the Ragon Institute in Cambridge, MA, for a panel discussion about Stat, the new publication for which I’m now a national correspondent. See here for how to register.
October 21, Farmington, Connecticut, at the Jackson Laboratory: “From Viruses to Whales, From Newspapers to Twitter: A Career in Science Writing.” Details here.
October 24, Pittsburgh: A discussion about the future of DNA editing at the annual conference of the National Society of Genetics Counselors.
November 13, Providence, RI, at the National Association of Biology Teachers: I’ll be giving a talk in conjunction with receiving their Distinguished Service Award.
November 19, the New York City Genome Center: A panel discussion on “Jewish genomics” Details here.
January 28, the New Jersey Institute of Technology in Newark, NJ: Details to come.
That’s it. As always, if you have friends whom would you think would enjoy getting this newsletter, please let them know they can sign up at http://tinyletter.com/carlzimmer.
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Best wishes, Carl
Originally published October 9, 2015. Copyright 2015 Carl Zimmer.