Carl Zimmer

Writer. Columnist, New York Times. Book author. Champion of under-appreciated life forms. Web: carlzimmer.com

Public Key

npub1k4rdf9p8qsdcqgwavn98y2jegyya559tqwmjfly3zn37tmxv8zdskzzksh

NIP-05 Address

[email protected]

Profile Code

nprofile1qqst23k5jsnsgxuqy8wkfjnj9fv5zzw62z4s8deyljg3fcl9anxr3xcpz4mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujumt0wd68ytnsw43q7l220j

Publishing to

relay.mostr.pub

Author Public Key

npub1k4rdf9p8qsdcqgwavn98y2jegyya559tqwmjfly3zn37tmxv8zdskzzksh

Show more details

Last Notes

2024-08-13 22:43:04

Good people of New York, please join me November 14 at the 92nd St. Y, where I'll be talking on stage with Donald Johanson about the fiftieth anniversary of Lucy's discovery--and what we've learned about human evolution in the half-century since. Details here: https://www.92ny.org/event/dr-donald-johanson-and-carl-zimmer?mcSID=1031480

2024-08-09 15:29:47

New story: Scientists have created a version of HIV that cheats its fellow HIV viruses. An upcoming clinical trial will test whether it can work as a new kind of antiviral drug. 1/3

2024-08-06 18:16:52

It's been 20 years since Homo floresiensis (aka the Hobbits) first came to light on the island of Flores. And scientists are still just barely starting to understand these tiny humans. Here's my story (gift link) https://nyti.ms/3WBRxoV

2024-08-02 00:19:13

How did the rose get its thorns? For starters, they're prickles, not thorns. And it turns out that roses and lots of other plants have harnessed the same gene to grow them. Here's my evo-devo story https://nyti.ms/3yjFPr7

2024-07-31 16:23:15

I wrote about physicist Sara Walker's travels in the border zones of life in my 2021 book "Life's Edge." Now she has written a book of her own. Here's my story on "Life As No One Knows It." Gift link: https://nyti.ms/4fueKlU

2024-07-03 19:48:23

Denisovans lived for over 100,000 years on the Tibetan plateau, hunting snow leopards and golden eagles and other animals. Here's my story on these remarkable people [Gift link] https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/03/science/denisovans-ice-age-hunting-tibet.html?unlocked_article_code=1.4U0.bhkb.sDDNm9NmFCPB&smid=url-share

2024-06-29 17:08:59

In new experiments, scientists have given bird flu to cows and watched what happens. The results indicate the virus isn't spreading in droplets infecting airways. For those worried about the evolution of a new pandemic, that's good news--for now. Here's my story. Gift link: https://nyti.ms/3RNOYhX

2024-06-27 17:58:25

The last woolly mammoths survived on a remote island till 4000 years ago, wracked for millennia by genetic disorders. Here's my story on what they can tell us about saving endangered species today. Gift link: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/27/science/mammoth-genes-wrangel.html?unlocked_article_code=1.200.-bER.eni-GLQYwkBz&smid=url-share

2024-06-21 17:36:47

Plato wrote that thought “is a silent inner conversation of the soul with itself.” And yet recent studies on the brain find no evidence that we use language to think. Here’s my story on this fascinating debate. [Gift link] https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/19/science/brain-language-thought.html?unlocked_article_code=1.1U0.Kfbn.cWqiYcis-fKE&smid=url-share

2024-06-11 17:12:55

Scientists have been puzzling over a weird little fossil called Pikaia for decades. Is this 508-million-year-old creature our pre-vertebrate cousin? Now a team of researchers says the confusion all came from how we looked it it. We've had Pikaia upside down the whole time. Gift link: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/11/science/pikaia-vertebrate-evolution.html?unlocked_article_code=1.y00._CN-.HQ58uKBNS6lC&smid=url-share
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/112/598/627/027/518/261/original/1b2e098f874d9627.jpg

2024-05-24 17:45:10

I do my best impression of a singing humpback whale on the Daily podcast today https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/24/podcasts/the-daily/whales-song.html

2024-05-07 18:43:11

Marine biologists and computer scientists say they have discovered that sperm whales use a "phonetic alphabet." Do they use it for a language made of underwater clicks? Here's my story. [gift link] https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/07/science/whale-song-alphabet.html?unlocked_article_code=1.qE0.r4Ru.wAKnmD0rJCt_&smid=url-share

2024-05-01 17:12:59

Mega-droughts, war, migration: What do 30,000 years of history reveal about how societies withstand collapse? I take a look at an intriguing new study for my Origins column. Gift link: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/01/science/resilient-societies-climate-change.html?unlocked_article_code=1.ok0.0pxJ.SV-0DZRlByO-&smid=url-share

2024-04-24 16:12:10

Have you heard the cicadas yet this spring? In celebration of 2024's double-brood event, I wrote about how little we know about how trillions of insects know to emerge at the same time. [Gift link] https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/24/science/why-do-cicadas-emerge.html?unlocked_article_code=1.m00.Fx4Y.XU4ePnX5Wqdr&smid=url-share

2024-04-18 15:29:55

What is "airborne"? WHO has created a new common language for talking about how diseases spread. It took over two years to put it together. Here's my story [Gift link] https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/18/health/who-airborne-covid.html?ugrp=m&unlocked_article_code=1.lU0.n903.tYS5hsResb32&smid=url-share

2024-04-14 17:07:25

One of the many reasons tardigrades are amazing: they can withstand a blast of gamma rays a thousand times greater than a lethal dose for humans. I wrote about their molecular secrets of survival. Gift link: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/12/science/tardigrades-moss-piglets.html?ugrp=m&unlocked_article_code=1.j00.BPVj.aHBA0dEJIC-X&smid=url-share

2024-04-11 22:28:00

For Quanta, I took a trip through the social life of viruses. Check it out! https://www.quantamagazine.org/viruses-finally-reveal-their-complex-social-life-20240411/

2024-03-02 22:53:01

You can hold all the known fossils of Denisovans in your cupped hands. But as scientists find more of their DNA, they get more and more interesting. Here's my profile of these ghostly people. gift link: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/02/science/denisovan-neanderthal-dna.html?unlocked_article_code=1.Zk0.V_jv.WB3VDJm31-m_&smid=url-share

2024-02-16 20:25:11

Were some dinosaurs akin to ostriches--flightless feathered animals descended from ancient flyers? In my new email newsletter, I look at an intriguing new study on what the feathers have to say. https://buttondown.email/carlzimmer/archive/fridays-elk-february-16-2024/
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/111/942/793/030/250/799/original/726e4752f279db8b.jpg

2024-02-12 21:42:52

Did the dinosaur-killing asteroid 66 million years ago drive the evolution of living birds? Or were they steadily evolving for tens of millions of years already? The DNA and the fossils seem to be telling different stories. Here's my story on the stories [gift link] https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/12/science/bird-evolution-asteroid-dinosaurs.html?unlocked_article_code=1.U00.2Fwl.iaTtz21qtUAO&smid=url-share

2024-01-17 20:15:08

The tusks of mammoths and mastodons contain a daily journal of their wanderings. Only now are scientists reading them. Here’s my story on how these elephantine biographies are offering clues about their lives and ultimate extinctions. Gift link:
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/17/science/woolly-mammoth-tusk-research.html?unlocked_article_code=1.OU0.t4b3.w0SYqE_zduOw&smid=url-share

2024-01-10 18:53:47

Scientists can now study the genomes of thousands of people who lived thousands of years ago. And they’re uncovering the evolutionary history that has left us today with diseases like multiple sclerosis. Here’s my story on the results of a massive new analysis of the Stone Age roots of modern health.
Gift link: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/10/science/ancient-human-genes-multiple-sclerosis.html?unlocked_article_code=1.Mk0.y6GJ.J37T37IMdKwL&smid=url-share

2024-01-09 19:51:54

New model of global-warming-driven extinctions projects 3 to 6 million species of animals and plants wiped out in next 50 years. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/gcb.17125?af=R

2024-01-04 15:35:12

A new study shows that flowers have evolved over the past three decades to have less sex—possibly in response to the disappearance of bees. It could be a death spiral for some species. Here’s my story. Gift link: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/04/science/flower-sex-evolution-bees.html?mwgrp=a-dbar&unlocked_article_code=1.LE0._inN.7uQQgiu7kYGW&smid=url-share

2023-12-29 19:30:43

It's the time of the year for picking the top science stories of 2023. There were triumphs, yes. But for my newsletter, I picked a different kind of story: the struggle to bring back the American chestnut tree, and what it really takes to address the extinction crisis. https://buttondown.email/carlzimmer/archive/fridays-elk-december-29-2023/

2023-12-14 14:21:13

Were Neanderthals morning people? The genes of today’s early risers certainly point that way. Here’s my story. [Gift link] https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/14/science/neanderthal-sleep-morning-people.html?mwgrp=a-dbar&unlocked_article_code=1.F00.P8h7.G2W58ELpkth2&smid=url-share

2023-11-30 20:55:42

Penguins fall asleep thousands of times a day, for just a few seconds. Here’s my story on nature’s extreme nappers. Gift link: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/30/science/penguin-naps-sleep.html?unlocked_article_code=1.CU0.KS0f.KxJXtNoodUo5&smid=url-share

2023-11-06 17:35:09

I've been mailing out some autographed books to readers. If you'd like to order one made out to you or to someone else as a gift, please fill out this form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe1XImfimbWmFC8k8sxbU8B6aCCRTjUS3X1qOKXT238_aW3WQ/viewform?usp=pp_url

2023-10-31 22:05:12

Over five thousand sea lions killed in Peru by bird flu. https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/29/12/23-0192_article

2023-10-26 20:11:31

Menopause is a peculiar human feature that fascinates evolutionary biologists. But now it turns out that female chimpanzees go through menopause, too. Here’s my story on this new mystery https://tinyurl.com/efkrhsnd [Gift link]

2023-10-09 23:02:31

Prevention of zoonotic spillover: From relying on response to reducing the risk at source https://journals.plos.org/plospathogens/article?id=10.1371/journal.ppat.1011504

2023-10-07 20:41:31

I can't believe Google still delivers this result.
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/111/195/198/785/860/580/original/abf19db8564325ce.png

2023-10-02 17:08:54

The world of contagious cancer keeps getting weirder. Here's my story on how these quasi-parasites have been floating through the ocean for perhaps thousands of years. https://tinyurl.com/5xubysfw [Gift link]

2023-10-02 14:24:04

mRNA—>Nobel. Gift link: https://tinyurl.com/2rkryx5e

2023-09-25 17:31:22

Welcome to Pangea Ultima, our toasty potential new home 250 million years from now. A new study suggests it may get too hot for mammals like us to survive. Gift link: https://tinyurl.com/4zturk96

2023-09-01 15:49:06

I've been asked a couple questions a lot in reaction to my story on how our species might have gone extinct before we started. [Gift link: https://tinyurl.com/bddpxjk9 ]
1/3

2023-08-24 19:33:33

A sweeping look at the crisis in the Amazon. "What we were predicting to happen perhaps in two or three decades is already taking place," said one scientist. https://www.nature.com/immersive/d41586-023-02599-1

2023-06-26 18:01:22

USG at last is putting serious resources into new Covid vaccine research. But there's a lot of confusion and uncertainty as it gets underway. Ben Mueller, Noah Weiland, and I report here: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/26/health/covid-vaccines-nextgen.html

2023-06-24 21:16:26

For my latest Origins column, I wrote about scientists mixing human stem cells to make models of embryos--and why models of embryos are not embryos. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/24/science/human-embryos-lab-models-fertility.html

2023-06-01 03:38:41

Now India is cutting the periodic table from science classes. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-01770-y

2023-05-17 17:11:15

I've got two stories on our origins today. 1) Our species started as a patchwork of peoples across Africa. 2) To understand how our ancestors became animals, consider the comb jelly! 1) https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/17/science/human-origins-africa.html 2) https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/17/science/first-animals-comb-jellies.html