Donovan, a biologist from Brazil writes, “My tattoo talks about the real scientific spirit. It’s a phrase in Portuguese of Isaac Newton: ‘If I have seen further it is only by standing on the shoulders of giants.’”
About The Loom
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 PostsScience 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. If you want to share your own scientific ink, send it to me with some explanation.
Books by Carl Zimmer
- DISCOVERmagazine: Living World
- DISCOVER Blogs: Bad Astronomy
My Books
May 16th, 2009 at 8:09 am
Hmm, does he realize that there is a strong possibility that Newton meant the phrase as an insult to his rival, Robert Hooke, who was in fact short of stature?
May 16th, 2009 at 10:20 am
“Tropical Newton”? like if he were sitting under a coconut tree instead of an apple tree – he would have found gravity but we’d never’ve known about it.
May 16th, 2009 at 5:49 pm
May 17th, 2009 at 10:33 am
Massimo beat me to the comment.
I read it in the book titled “The Scientists.”
May 19th, 2009 at 4:35 am
Such a great collection of tattoo. I’ll recommend to my lab’s colleagues to make one