Richard writes, “On my shoulder. Taken from an engraving by Ernest Haekel.”
Carl: Here’s the Wikipedia page on diatoms, those abundant microscopic shell-builders of the sea. And here’s a gallery of Haeckel’s amazing illustrations—many tattoos in the making (and made, in some cases).
Carl Zimmer writes about science regularly for the New York Times and magazines such as Discover, where he is a contributing editor and columnist.
He is the author of seven books, the most recent of which is The Tangled Bank: An Introduction To Evolution. His website is carlzimmer.com and his address is [ blog at carlzimmer dot com ].
Recent Posts
DISCOVERmagazine: Living World DISCOVER Blogs: Bad Astronomy
July 10th, 2008 at 2:22 pm
diatoms are gorgeous. some of the prettiest things i’ve ever seen.
February 25th, 2009 at 1:55 am
That’s definitely a radiolarian, not a diatom:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiolarian
Still pretty sweet, though.