The Loom » Talks

The Future of E-books–podcast of my interview on Wisconsin Public Radio

Carl Zimmer — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 14:31:16 +0000

WPR has posted the podcast of my talk last week on the Ben Merens show on their site–including a lot of interesting comments from callers. (Direct link to MP3)

[Image: Jonathan Franzen's Freedom on an Iphone. Gasp! Prepare for the Apocalypse! Photo by badosa on Flickr/Creative Commons]

Thursday, February 16: Science and social media panel in New York

Carl Zimmer — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 17:57:18 +0000

Next week is Social Media Week, during which time the American Museum of Natural History is hosting an exploration of science and social media. It will take place on Thursday, 2/16, at 6 pm, and after the official panel discussion there will be a beer and wine reception in the Museum’s Hall of Minerals and Gems.

The panelists for the evening include–

Ben Lillie, the physicist turned spoken-word impresario who has founded the delightful Story Collider

Matt Danzico, a BBC journalist who conducted a 365-day blog experiment called “The Time Hack” looking at how we perceive time

Ruth Cohen, Director of the Center for Lifelong Learning at the American Museum of Natural History, who will talk about how the museum uses apps to help kids learn about urban biodiversity

–and me. I’ll talk about how social media (primarily the Loom) turned me into a curator of science tattoos and then an author of a decidedly unusual coffee table book.

The discussion will be moderated by Jennifer Kingson, an editor in the Science Department at The New York Times.

The event is free, but you need to register on the event page.

Science Ink in New York: This Tuesday

Carl Zimmer — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 05:52:54 +0000

This Tuesday I’ll be giving a talk at the New York Academy of Sciences about Science Ink–complete with live tattooed scientists!

Here are some of the details…

When: Tuesday, January 24, 2012, 7:00 PM – 8:30 PM. (A reception will follow.)
Where: The New York Academy of Sciences
7 World Trade Center
250 Greenwich Street, 40th floor
New York, NY 10007-2157
212.298.8600

Get $10 dollars off full-price tickets by using the promo code ZIMMER. Register here: http://www.nyas.org/scienceink

See you there!

Science Ink on this week’s Science Friday

Carl Zimmer — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 18:36:17 +0000

I’ll be on National Public Radio’s Science Friday this week to talk about Science Ink. Host Ira Flatow and I will be chatting during the 3 pm EST hour. In the meantime, the folks at Science Friday have set up a slide show preview.

The Wall Street Journal ogles tattoos, and more #scienceink news

Carl Zimmer — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 15:33:04 +0000

1. Good morning. Over the weekend, the Wall Street Journal features Science Ink in their Visualizer Column. I stopped by their offices on Friday and recorded an interview with WSJ editor Gary Rosen, which I’ve embedded below.

2. In other news…Amazon has Science Ink back in stock, and they’re offering it at half price.

3. The Huffington Post Science section featured Science Ink, which surely must bode well for its future.

4. I’ll be on the radio this week talking about the book–details to come!

5. Finally, let me just remind New Yorkers that I’ll be speaking at the New York Academy of Sciences about Science Ink on Tuesday, January 24, at 7 pm.

Here are some of the details…

Get $10 dollars off admission by using the promo code ZIMMER. Register here:http://www.nyas.org/scienceink

January 24: Science Ink comes to the New York Academy of Sciences

Carl Zimmer — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 17:38:04 +0000

Greetings, Gothamites! If you’re free Tuesday, January 24, please join me for a talk at the New York Academy of Sciences. I’ll be delivering an anthropological lecture about an intriguing sub-culture that expresses itself with body inscriptions. I speak, of course, of scientists with tattoos.

At my last talk, at the Harvard Museum of Natural History, the evening was enhanced with the presence of actual, flesh-and-blood scientists with tattoos, some of whom appear in the pages of Science Ink. If you are a member of this inky, geeky clan and are planning on coming to the New York talk, please let me know so that I can try to work you into the presentation.

Here are some of the details…

Get $10 dollars off full-price tickets by using the promo code ZIMMER. Register here: http://www.nyas.org/scienceink

A new episode of Radiolab: Patient Zero

Carl Zimmer — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 12:51:32 +0000

Radiolab has a new episode available for your auditory pleasure. The theme of this episode is “Patient Zero.” Hosts Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich trace diseases and ideas back to their places of origin. I help tell the story of the origin of HIV along with David Quammen (who’s got a book coming out soon on animal diseases) and some of the pioneering scientists who have figured out how viruses spill over from animals to us. Check it out!

Radio: Friday 10 am PST (1 pm EST) on KQED

Carl Zimmer — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 07:46:10 +0000

I’m in San Francisco for the Bay Area Science Festival. On Friday at 10 am PST, I’ll be appearing on Forum, a morning show on KQED. Listen here live!

Calling the #scienceink tribe in San Francisco and Los Angeles! I’m headed your way this week.

Carl Zimmer — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 13:22:38 +0000

Today Science Ink is published! Amazon has already run out of copies to sell, but not to worry–the books are spitting out of printers as I blog this. Order your copy, and it will get to you soon. If you’re on the fence, check out this review from Nature (yes, that Nature, the venerable scientific journal): “Beautiful…packed with fascinating stories.” (It’s behind a paywall, alas…)

On Thursday, I’ll be heading off for the first of a bunch of events for the book. As part of the Bay Area Science Festival, I’ll be in San Francisco on Friday.

The first tattoo-themed stop will be Black & Blue Tattoo, on Friday from 7:15 to 8:15 pm. I’ll be showing images from the book and telling some of the stories behind them. If you’re a tattooed Bay Area scientist, please come and share your ink!

The second stop will be Booksmith, at 8:30 pm. It’s part of their Bookswap series.

(I’ll also be at a non-tattoo event as part the festival: Gut Check: The Hidden World of Microbes, on Friday at 12:30 at UC San Francisco. Details here.)

Then it’s on to ...

Radiolab and Skeptically Speaking: For Your Listening Pleasure

Carl Zimmer — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 02:01:39 +0000

If you’ve got some free time, here are a couple talks for your listening pleasure.

Radiolab presents a story I told about a fateful trip to Sudan on their latest podcast. I’ve embedded it here:

Last week, I also talked about viruses on Skeptically Speaking, and they’ve posted our conversation here. (If you have trouble at that link, try here.) Among other things, we talk about the unimaginably huge number of viruses on Earth, and I offer my vote for the Worst Virus Ever. Fortunately, if you’re not a catepillar, you don’t have anything to worry about.

#scienceink on Studio 360 this weekend

Carl Zimmer — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 16:34:34 +0000

We’re getting close to the publication of Science Ink (official date, November 1), and some very fun things are approaching. The wonderful National Public Radio show Studio 360, hosted by Kurt Anderson, decided to talk to some of the scientists featured in the book–about their science, about their tattoos, and about the nature of openness. It will be on their next episode, which starts airing around the country this weekend. (Here’s the segment page on their web site.)

And you can listen to it right here–

More announcements to come!

Holes in the net: A podcast of my Story Collider tale

Carl Zimmer — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 21:13:19 +0000

Story Collider is a monthly performance where people tell stories about science. (Think The Moth in a lab coat.) The organizer, Ben Lillie, invited me to tell a personal story about the place of science writing in my life. I decided to talk about a memorable night in South Sudan, when I wondered what I was living for.

I told the story to a great crowd at Union Hall in Brooklyn last week. And you can hear the podcast at the Story Collider web site. Check it out.

Celluloid Science: October 20 at the New York Academy of Sciences

Carl Zimmer — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 13:00:45 +0000

Let’s just pretend for a moment that this theater is showing a thrilling movie about Cambrian fossils, shall we? And to further that dream, join me in October for “Celluloid Science,” a talk about science and the movies at the New York Academy of Sciences. It’s part of the NYAS “Science & The City” series.

Here are the details from the event web site…

Celluloid Science: Humanizing Life in the Lab
Thursday, October 20, 2011 | 7:00 PM – 8:30 PM
The New York Academy of Sciences, 7 World Trade Center

If you know anything about science, you understand that it is a highly complex human endeavor that mixes perseverance and luck, eccentricity and training, feasts and famines. As a medium, film has the potential to bring us into the inner world of science, breaking down misconceptions about the nature of science by creating an alternative narrative.

Science & the City teams with the Imagine Science Film Festival (ISFF) to present a panel discussion about telling the stories of science through film. Moderating this panel will be author Carl Zimmer. On the panel will be Sean Carroll, PhD ...

Monday, Tuesday: New Haven, New York

Carl Zimmer — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 16:13:56 +0000

On Monday, I’ll be speaking at a master’s tea at Morse College at Yale at 4 pm about outbreaks–real and fictionalized, viral and bacterial. It’s free and open to the public.

On Tuesday, I’ll be participating in Story Collider, a marvelous series of performances in which people tell stories about science. I am a bit nervous about this one for a few reasons, not the least of which is that I go on stage after Bora Zivkovic. I’ve sat in Bora’s car, listening to his stories, which he tells with one hand on the wheel and the other sweeping around in operatic gestures. I know what I’m up against.

The fun starts at 8 pm in Brooklyn. Details are here.

Ebooks and science: Livestreamed tonight

Carl Zimmer — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 13:11:17 +0000

I’m heading to New York this evening for an exciting conversation about the future of books, hosted by Science Online New York. We’ll be talking about the new opportunities opened up by ebooks and apps, as well as some of the problems they will bring with them. There’s now a waiting list to get into the room, but you can watch it livestreamed here, starting at around 7 pm EST. What makes the event particularly exciting for me is that you could pick any five members of the audience as the panelists, and the conversation would be just as interesting. So the prepared remarks are going to be short (just long enough to show off a few examples of new kinds of science books), and then we’re going to plunge into a wide-ranging, room-wide exchange. We’ll also be tracking questions with the #sonyc hashtag on Twitter, so feel free to join in the conversation.

Autumn yammerings: Where I’ll be talking this fall

Carl Zimmer — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 20:35:49 +0000

After a fairly quiet summer, I’m going to be giving some talks this fall, starting around my neighborhood and then radiating outwards. Here’s a preliminary list of public events. I may be adding extra ones as the launch of Science Ink approaches. You can find the most up-to-date information on my talks page.

September 15, 2011
Guilford CT
Guilford Free Library
“A Planet of Viruses”

September 19, 2011
New Haven CT
St. Anthony Hall
“A Planet of Viruses”

September 20, 2011
New York, NY
Science Online New York
(We’ll be talking about making ebooks about science–it’s free but only 9 tickets are left)

September 26, 2011
New Haven CT
Morse College Master’s Tea, Yale College, 4 pm
“Confronting Contagion: Myth and Reality”

September 27, 2011
Brooklyn, NY
Story Collider

October 14, 2011
Louisville, KY
University of Louisville
“Crossing the Divide: On the Adventure of Getting Science Across to the Public”
Brochure (pdf)

October 20, 2011
New York City
New York Academy of Sciences, 7 pm
“Celluloid Science: Humanizing Life in the Lab”

November 2-4, 2011
San Francisco
Bay Area Science Festival

November 15, 2011
New Haven, CT
O.C. Marsh Fellows Program
Peabody Museum of ...

More on Scientific American Podcast: Science Tattoos and the Myth of the Parasite-Driven Cat Lady

Carl Zimmer — Sun, 28 Aug 2011 02:46:36 +0000

Before Irene takes away my Internet connection, let me point you to part two of my interview on Science Talk, the podcast of Scientific American. (If you missed it, here’s part one.)

Talk you on the other side of the maelstrom.

[Update: Part one linked now fixed]

Scientific American interviews me about evolution in the city (and more to come)

Carl Zimmer — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 15:45:01 +0000

Steve Mirsky, host of the excellent Science Talk, a podcast at Scientific American, talked to me the other day about all sorts of things. Part one of our talk is now online. We talk about my recent story about evolution in New York City. (Scientific American has a special issue dedicated to cities this month.) Listen to the podcast here.

Steve will be posting the second part of the talk soon.

Good morning Wisconsin: On the radio Thursday at 8 am CST

Carl Zimmer — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 21:35:04 +0000

I’m going to talk about viruses on the Joy Cardin show on Wisconsin Public Radio tomorrow (Thursday, July 7) at 8 am CST (9 am EST). Listen here!

Update: the show is archived for your listening pleasure here.

Viral radio: A talk about viruses on KUSP in Santa Cruz

Carl Zimmer — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 20:48:08 +0000

You can listen here to a fun talk I had with Robert Pollie at KUSP in Santa Cruz on my recent visit to the Bay. We spoke for an hour about A Planet of Viruses, and so we had the luxury of delving into the fun questions, like whether viruses are alive. Check it out.

My “Viral Time” talk–now on FORA.tv

Carl Zimmer — Sat, 18 Jun 2011 12:56:06 +0000

Here, for your viewing pleasure (I hope), is my recent talk about time and viruses, at the Long Now Foundation. I turn up after a short video, and then after the lecture Stewart Brand and I have a fun conversation about how viruses will not infect you with superpowers.

Listen live to some virus talk at 2 pm EST today on KERA/Dallas

Carl Zimmer — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 16:43:23 +0000

I’ll be on “Think,” an hour-long talk show on Dallas’s public radio station KERA at 2 pm EST, to talk about A Planet of Viruses. Listen live here.

My Long Now lecture: Viral Time (slides and audio)

Carl Zimmer — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 19:59:52 +0000

I just got back from San Francisco, where I had the privilege to speak at the remarkable Long Now Foundation. Stewart Brand, the head of the foundation, invites people to talk to the group about topics that stretch our conception of time over long scales. So I spoke about viruses and time–how they exist at scales ranging from minutes to eons. The Long Now folks have just posted the audio, which I’ve embedded below. I’ve also embedded the slides for my talk, too.

If I can win the battle against an army of deadlines this week, I’ll try to write out the entire talk as I did with “The Human Lake.” But I’ve learned not to make hard promises.

Audio:

Slides:

Viral Time: Carl Zimmer's talk at the Long Now Foundation View more presentations from cwzimmer

The Mind After Midnight: Here’s the video from the World Science Festival

Carl Zimmer — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 17:28:06 +0000

Last week I was thrilled to moderate a World Science Festival panel about the mysteries of sleep and dreams. The video is now up here. I’m also embedding it below (if WordPress plays nice with the code…). Be sure to watch till the end, when you can learn about snore-gasms.

I’ve actually written about Niels Rattenborg, one of the panelists before, in a piece for the New York Times. I also wrote about the researchers he’s now collaborating with, who put transmitters on birds that go on ultra-long migrations.

Watch live streaming video from worldsciencefestival at livestream.com

The art of storytelling at the World Science Festival

Carl Zimmer — Wed, 18 May 2011 16:35:29 +0000

The World Science Festival is gearing up for its third year in New York, and I’m delighted to participate once more. This time I’ll be talking about a topic near and dear to my heart–telling stories about science. On Thursday June 2, they’ll have a full day of scientist-writers, television producers, and science writers.

Here’s the lineup (go to the festival site to purchase tickets):

Science on Screen
Thursday, June 2, 2011
(9:00 – 10:00)
Participants: Bill Weir, Louie Psihoyos, Simon Singh, Howard Swartz

Fantastic imagery and groundbreaking journalism dominate the best of documentary science storytelling. Director Louie Psihoyos’ Oscar-winning documentary The Cove (2009) stands as one of the most audacious and dangerous-to-film operations in the history of the conservation movement. NOVA’s Emergency Mine Rescue (2010) chronicled the unprecedented technological feat of rescuing 33 trapped Chilean miners. Today’s best producers of on-screen science are pushing the envelope, using a range of computer-based tools—including the highly cinematic techniques of digital science animation—to take viewers on a swooping ride through previously unseen worlds. How do these newly available techniques influence and enhance their editorial judgment? And what stories of science are ...