The Loom

The Last Thing The Mosquitofish Saw

Carl Zimmer — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 18:08:19 +0000

Peter Wainwright and his colleagues at UC Davis study the weird ways in which fish eat. Two years ago I wrote about their creepy work on moray eels for the Times here. Now they’ve got a Youtube channel for their surreal films. Mick Jagger, meet the Red Bay Snook. And Mr. Mosquitofish, meet your doom. (h/t Jonathan Eisen)

Alternative Landscapes

Carl Zimmer — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 20:47:14 +0000

Leave it to the Boston Globe’s Big Picture to pick out a staggering portfolio of pictures of Mars.

Tangled Bank News: An Excerpt and More

Carl Zimmer — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 16:38:27 +0000

The Tangled Bank is now officially out; I’m getting word back from readers that it’s actually showing up from Amazon. If you’re curious about it, here are a couple ways to find out more.

1. I’ve set up pages on my web site where you can download the introduction, look at some of Carl Buell’s artwork for the book, read reviews, and get contact information if you’re a teacher interested in a desk copy.

2. The New York Academy of Sciences has published an excerpt in the new issue of their magazine. It’s about the evolution of the eye, and you can read it online here.

3. Discover has another excerpt, about coevolution, in their November issue. The print issue is out now, and it should be posted online some time soon.

Podcast: An Embarrassment of Genomes

Carl Zimmer — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 17:17:42 +0000

Many blog and Twitter readers may be acquainted with Jonathan Eisen, a biologist at UC Davis. In my latest Meet the Scientist podcast, I spend an hour chatting with Eisen about what you can learn by looking at the genomes of particularly weird microbes–from radiation-resistant critters to bugs that live in the guts of insects or on the bellies of deep-sea worms. Check it out.

“Bug smut peddler Carl Zimmer”

Carl Zimmer — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 14:57:49 +0000

Time to print up some new business cards.

Pwnage Made Easy

Carl Zimmer — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 13:30:16 +0000

I smell an anthology here: a collection of the all-time greatest take-downs, in which scientists expose lazy thinking. How about, The Best Pwnage of 2009?

My own latest nomination:

In the new book Superfreakonomics, economist Steven Levitt and journalist Stephen Dubner make lots of provocative claims about global warming. For example, they say that solar panels would absorb so much heat they’d be useless for bringing the planet’s temperature down by cutting down carbon emissions.

Raymond Pierrehumbert, who, like Levitt, is a professor at the University of Chicago, shows why that’s wrong–not with calculus or some other fancy-schmancy mathematics, but with some embarrassingly simple arithmetic.

Be sure to check out the map at the end. Ouch.

Teach The Lizard Overlord Controversy

Carl Zimmer — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 20:24:55 +0000

Who says there aren’t any disagreements over human origins? Not this guy.

[hat tip the Twitterati]

Congratulations, Magnetic Movie

Carl Zimmer — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 02:47:25 +0000

I had the pleasure of serving as a judge for the Scientific Merit Award at the Imagine Science Film Festival, which just closed over the weekend. You may have seen the winner we picked, Magnetic Movie, which I’ve embedded below. There was a huge variety to choose from, some wonderfully beautiful, and some finding great emotional depth in just a few minutes. But Magnetic Movie, in the way it reveals the hidden weirdness that surrounds us, was tops.

Magnetic Movie from Semiconductor on Vimeo.

Ten Evolution Picks For Nova

Carl Zimmer — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 20:24:07 +0000

NOVA isn’t just a great television series; it’s also a formidable web site. (And, as with so many things media these days, it’s hard to draw the line between the two.)

They’ve just launched an evolution-rich site, with information on their evolution-related shows and lots of other goodies. (As you can see, it’s still beta.)

As part of the unveiling, NOVA asked me if I’d pick ten of the most important developments in evolutionary biology over the past decade. I came up with a far-from-exhaustive list. Check it out.

Where I’ll Be Talking (Now That I’m Conscious)

Carl Zimmer — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 17:53:27 +0000

After weeks of manically scrubbing my hands with soap, Purel, and eye of newt, I ended up getting swine flu anyway. It’s not terribly surprising, since my entire town seems to have become a Petri dish for the viruses this week. I find a stunning clarity to the flu–you don’t feel a little sleep-deprived, or a little raspy. You are just a slave, heeding your body’s call to go to bed. I’m grateful that I am now on the mend, but I’m worried that with so many of us conking out, even a small percentage of serious cases will wreak havoc on hospitals. Someone please remind me why we still make our flu vaccines in chicken eggs?

It just so happens that swine flu was going to be one of the things I plan to talk about over the next few weeks as I head out for a series of talks to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Origin of Species. I’d rather have to speak about the evolution of swine flu second-hand, but I guess I’ll talk as a former host.

Here are my movements…hope to meet some Loom readers along the way (but only if you’re healthy!)

Sunday November 1. Pasadena, CA: Caltech.

Thursday November 12. New Haven, CT: Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History

Saturday November 14. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University [details to come]

Thursday November 19. Vancouver, British Columbia: Beaty Biodiversity Museum

Thursday, December 3. Denver: Denver Museum of Nature and Science

Friday, December 11. Amherst: University of Massachusetts [details to come]

Saturday, January 16. Research Triangle Park, NC: Science Online 2010. (This is the only talk that’s not a public lecture. I’ll be on a panel discussing science journalism online. You have to register for the entire workshop. But this is definitely one workshop I’d recommend you sign up for.)

Podcast: The Cave Dwellers

Carl Zimmer — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 18:13:54 +0000

In my latest podcast, I talk to Hazel Barton, a microbiologist who explores the bizarre biology of microbes that live in deep caves. Check it out.

The Loom and the Rest of Discover Go Mobile

Carl Zimmer — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 18:01:30 +0000

Take the Loom with you. Discover has now set up a mobile version of the entire site, including this blog. It looks good on my Itouch, I have to say, but judge for yourself. And let us know if you find any bugs in need of fixing.