Blogs / The Loom

Today at 5 pm EST I am going to be on Science Fantastic, the radio show hosted by physicist Michio Kaku. You can call in at 800-449-8255. Here’s a list of stations that carry the show, either live or repeated later this week.

I’m waiting to board my Air Canada flight to the rain-drenched city of Vancouver. Residents of that fair city are invited to come to the Beaty Biodiversity Museum, dry off for a spell, and hear my talk tomorrow at 7 about Darwin, the flu, and evolution . It’s free, but you have to register here. See you tomorrow.

Here’s a fun talk I had Saturday on Science Cabaret, a radio show on WICB in Ithaca. The host, Jennifer Nelson, is a graduate student at Cornell and has only been interviewing people about science for two months, but she’s clearly a natural at this. At the Science Cabaret site, you can listen to her earlier talks, too. Check them out.

Tomorrow morning I’m hopping a plane and spending the afternoon at Cornell. On Saturday, I’ll be giving a talk about The Origin of Species just down the road in downtown Ithaca. Caren Cooper, an ornithologist at Cornell, has used my upcoming talk as the hook for a lovely essay in the Ithaca Times about the real wonder of science versus the make-believe of pseudoscience. You can find details about the talk here.

Just a reminder to my fellow Nutmeggers: I will be speaking tomorrow at 5:30 pm at the Peabody Museum at Yale in New Haven. The title of the talk is “Darwin Gets Swine Flu.” Pigs, ducks, sneezes, and more.

Details here.

This post is really just an excuse for me to put up this cool poster. If you want the details on my talk in Vancouver on November 18, you can find them here. Tickets are free, but registration is required.

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.

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.)

My second podcast is now live. I talk to Dennis Bray of the University of Cambridge about cells as microscopic computers. I first came across Bray’s work while working on my book, Microcosm. I was looking for new work on how E. coli manages to figure out where to go when it doesn’t have a brain or even a single neuron. Before long, I came across Bray’s remarkable work on the sophisticated information-processing that goes on inside the bug.

In this week’s podcast I sound like I’m broadcasting out of a tin can (I’m getting that hammered out), but don’t let my distractions get in the way of listening to Bray. And if you’re interested in more details, check out his new book, Wetware: A Computer in Every Living Cell.

The video of my conversation with Lee Hotz of the Wall Street Journal at New York University on digital personae is now online. Blogging, podcasting, etc., etc. etc. etc. And etc. Check it out. (Warning–sound’s a little muddy. Ear phones will help.)

I’m going to be in New York on Thursday evening for a talk at NYU, in my capacity as visiting scholar.

All welcome!

[Update: Here's the video]

From the NYU site:

Inside-Out: Carl Zimmer on Books, Blogs and Building a Digital Persona

Described by the New York Times Book Review as “as fine a science essayist as we have,” the prolific and acclaimed author and journalist Carl Zimmer (currently a visiting scholar at the Institute) has embraced web platforms with a gusto matched by few reporters with his establishment credentials. Come find out how, and why.

Sponsored by the Institute’s Science, Health and Environmental Reporting Program, which organizes the Inside-Out speaker series moderated by Lee Hotz, distinguished writer in residence at the Institute and science columnist at The Wall Street Journal.

WHAT: Inside Out: Carl Zimmer on Books, Blogs and Building a Digital Persona

WHEN: September 24th, 2009, 6pm-8pm

WHERE: 20 Cooper Square, 7th Floor

Uff da–quite a week!

Monday brought Radio Lab’s great take on parasites, which I was thrilled to be a part of.

Tuesday was newspaper day, with a story in the New York Times on the evolution of flowers.

Thursday it was the sexual brain, the subject of my latest column in Discover complete with a safe-for-work video.

Friday brought the new issue of Time to the newsstands, with an article of mine on the minds of dogs.

Now at the close of the week, let me lure you into a different dimension of the media: podcasting.

The American Society of Microbiology has asked me to take over a biweekly podcast of theirs called “Meet the Scientist.” In each episode I’ll be talking with one of the many scientists who explore biology’s vast invisible world.  For my first podcast, I spoke to Michael Cunliffe, one of the scientists I wrote about recently who studies the ocean’s skin of jelly.

I’m still getting my bearings in the podcast universe, so feel free to dispense free advice. I’m looking forward to talking to many more scientists who study infectious diseases, synthetic biology, microbial evolution, and much more.

And now, off to New York for an old-fashioned talk. With Powerpoint.