Carl Zimmer has won the 2009 AAAS Kavli Science Journalism Award for Large Newspapers! I just love his quote on the website:
“I sometimes feel a little embarrassed that I like to write articles about the kinds of basic questions my kids ask me,” Zimmer said. “For the three stories I submitted, the questions were, ‘What’s a virus?’ ‘What’s a gene?’ and ‘Why do fireflies flash?’ I had a marvelous time talking with scientists about the complex answers to those simple questions, and now, thanks to this award, I don’t have to feel at all embarrassed.”
Carl brings so many wondrous science topics to life for readers around the world and we’re thrilled he’s being recognized by AAAS! Congratulations to all the winners, and especially, to our extremely talented colleague here at the Discover Blogs! Read more about the awards and this year’s recipients here.
November 11th, 2009 at 9:32 am
Dear Carl Zimmer,
Congratulations. Three cheers for you and science.
Just for a moment, please consider that ‘cancerous’ greed and a plethora of material addictions are widespread diseases of many too many leaders and their minions in my not-so-great elder generation, a dangerously disordered minority who harbor the potential for utterly ruining the future of children everywhere and the Earth as a fit place for life as we know it.
In such circumstances, do knowledgeable people who choose to remain electively mute end up complicitly appointing themselves mortal enemies of the future of life? Or not? If not, how is this behavior to be reasonably and sensibly characterized?
Is it not yet self-evident, Carl, that the self-proclaimed Masters of the Universe among us live in patently unsustainable ways as dangerously disordered greedmongers, plunderers, hyperconsumers and hoarders and that the human beings among us with feet of clay are unexpectedly the very people to guide the human community toward sustainability because they retain the capability for doing so?
Sincerely,
Steve