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About The Loom
"Celebrated curiosity monger"
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 twelve books, the most recent of which is Science Ink: Tattoos of the Science Obsessed. His website is carlzimmer.com and his address is blog at carlzimmer dot com .
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Recent Posts- Animal Friendships: My cover story for Time magazine
- The Future of E-books–podcast of my interview on Wisconsin Public Radio
- Thursday, February 16: Science and social media panel in New York
- A Scientific Jonah: My profile of Joy Reidenberg in tomorrow’s New York Times
- Ebooks on the radio: 6 pm ET tonight
Science Tattoo Emporium
I once wondered aloud if scientists had tattoos of their science. The answer was yes, and this ever-growing collection is the evidence. I've turned them into a book about art and science called Science Ink: Tattoos of Science Obsessed.
Books
Carl Zimmer is the author of twelve books and counting.
"Beautiful. Packed with fascinating stories"-Nature
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"Whether discussing the common cold and flu, little-known viruses that attack bacteria or protect oceans, or the world’s viral future as seen through our encounters with HIV or SARS, Zimmer’s writing is lively, knowledgeable, and graced with poetic touches.”—Rebecca Skloot, author of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
Available in hardback or Kindle
“Carl Zimmer takes us behind the scenes in our own heads. He has ferreted out all the most wondrous, bizarre stories and studies and served them up in this delicious, sizzling, easy-to-digest platter of neuro-goodness.” —Mary Roach, author of Packing for Mars and Stiff
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Further Explorations of the Mind
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"The Tangled Bank is the best written and best illustrated introduction to evolution of the Darwin centennial decade, and also the most conversant with ongoing research."--Edward O. Wilson, Harvard University
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"Superb...quietly revolutionary"--Boston Globe
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"Fascinating...thrilling... Zimmer has produced a top-notch work of popular science."--Los Angeles Times
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"As thorough as it is graceful...This is as fine a book as one will find on the subject."--Scientific American
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"A book capable of changing how we see the world."--The Los Angeles Times
Reissued with a new epilogue by the author.
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"A fascinating story, which Zimmer unfolds as a tale of high-stakes scientific sleuthing."--Booklist
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Nifty Fifty
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April 3rd, 2009 at 5:19 pm
I am an agnostic evolutionary biologist who feels that the way the contest is framed is way to confrontational. The following phrase just makes me feel sick:
“Think you can convince even the most hard-headed creationist that Darwin was right? If so, show us—and that creationist—how it’s done.”
Discover is better than this…at least I hope so.
April 4th, 2009 at 12:04 am
Does evolution really make sense to anyone? why would anything evolve? WHY? If every specie is happy, can move around and find food there is no reason to change. Why does any other specie exist today, shouldnt they be extinct considering we are here now? What will we evolve into? E.T.
April 4th, 2009 at 5:56 am
I have an issue with the same statement. How long are we going to equate evolution with Darwin’s theory? Evolution is made up of genetic drift and gene flow AND natural selection. Natural selection is just one of them. And people need to know this. The more we keep saying Darwin & Evolution in the same breath, we propagate this misconception.
April 4th, 2009 at 6:25 am
I have an issue with the whole concept. This is another example of dumbing down in America. Trying to reduce this to a two minute video is ludicrous. There are a dozen beautifully written scholarly treatises on the subject. Next there will be a contest for a six second sound bite.
April 17th, 2009 at 11:55 pm
“Does evolution really make sense to anyone? why would anything evolve? WHY? If every specie is happy, can move around and find food there is no reason to change. Why does any other specie exist today, shouldnt they be extinct considering we are here now? What will we evolve into? E.T.”
Ed –
Populations don’t change because there are “reasons” to change. Populations don’t “reason” at all. A species doesn’t reason and say “Hey, I’m happy, I can find lots of food, I guess I’ll stay the same” or “hey, I’m UNhappy, I’m underfed, I gotta evolve” any more than a sieve says “Hey, I’ve got a mixture of chunky rocks and fine sand in me, but I think I’ll keep the rocks and let the sand fall through my wire mesh.”
Why would the existence of humans as a species mean that all other species would be extinct? Honestly, it’s hard to figure out why you think this would be so. It seems like you are trying to offer the following syllogism:
1. If some descendants of a particular common ancestor evolve into a particularly “good” new species, that common ancestor should not have any other descendants that evolved in any other way;
2. Humans are a particularly “good” and special species;
3. Therefore no other species should exist that evolved from any common ancestor of humanity.
Where does #1 come from?? I mean, maybe everyone agrees that Larry has the best job, out of all the graduating class of 2008 — the day after the graduation, he started work as a lawyer at a top-flight firm at a six-figure salary. Does that mean that no one else who graduated in that same class can have ANY job at all? Does that mean that Bob can’t be a plumber, because Larry’s a lawyer? (High-priced lawyer or not, Larry’s life is gonna be pretty dire, if there’s no plumbers he can call when his pipes burst.)
May 3rd, 2009 at 5:03 am
[...] Evolution In Two Minutes: You Make The Movie [...]