Carl Zimmer's Blog, page 3
March 19, 2018
Starred review from Kirkus for "She Has Her Mother's Laugh"
Another early review of She Has Her Mother's Laugh--and another star! Kirkus Reviews calls the book “a thoroughly enchanting tour of big questions, oddball ideas, and dazzling accomplishments of researchers searching to explain, manipulate, and alter inheritance.” It's coming out May 29, but you can pre-order it now.
March 17, 2018
Interview about "She Has Her Mother's Laugh" in Publisher's Weekly
I talked to Publisher's Weekly about the challenges and pleasures of writing about heredity in my new book. Here's the interview.
March 10, 2018
Five days till "She Has Her Mother's Laugh" Giveway!
Just a reminder--subscribe to my free email newsletter by Thursday March 15 and be eligible for a book giveaway. My publisher will pick five subscribers to get early copies of
She Has Her Mother's Laugh
February 19, 2018
Starred review from Publisher's Weekly
Well, this is a thrill. Publisher's Weekly gave
She Has Her Mother's Laugh
a starred review, calling it "magnificent...engrossing as it is enlightening." You can read the review here, and pre-order a copy of the book here.
February 13, 2018
Book giveaway!
I’m giving away books! Sign up for "Friday's Elk," my free email newsletter, by March 15, and you’ll be eligible to win one of five early copies of She Has Her Mother’s Laugh. Sign up at https://tinyletter.com/carlzimmer
January 10, 2018
“Therefore his shipmates called him mad”: The Science of Moby Dick
In 2013, the Los Angeles Public Library commissioned me to write an essay about the science in Moby Dick (one of my favorite books), as part of an online celebration of Melville's novel. It lived there for a while, but recently I noticed that the whole site has vanished. So I've reposted my essay over on Medium.
December 15, 2017
Galley Day!
There is no day like galley day! (The book will be out in the spring, but you can pre-order a copy here.
November 23, 2017
Blurbs!
One of the best parts of writing a book is finally sharing it with other people. I've asked some of my favorite writers to take a look at
She Has Her Mother's Laugh
, and they've had some very kind things to say about it. Here are three:
“No one unravels the mysteries of science as brilliantly and compellingly as Carl Zimmer, and he has proven it again with She Has Her Mother's Laugh—a sweeping, magisterial book that illuminates the very nature of who we are.”
—David Grann, staff writer at The New Yorker, and author most recently of Killers of the Flower Moon
“Humans have long noticed something remarkable, namely that organisms are similar but not identical to their parents—in other words, that some traits can be inherited. From this observation has grown the elegant science of genetics, with its dazzling medical breakthroughs. And from this has also grown the toxic pseudosciences of eugenics, Lysenkoism and Nazi racial ideology. Carl Zimmer traces the intertwined histories of the science and pseudoscience of heredity. Zimmer writes like a dream, teaches a ton of accessible science, and provides the often intensely moving stories of the people whose lives have been saved or destroyed by this topic. I loved this book.”
—Robert Sapolsky, Professor of biology and neurology at Stanford University, and author most recently of New York Times bestseller Behave
“She Has Her Mother's Laugh is a masterpiece–a career-best work from one of the world’s premier science writers, on a topic that literally touches every person on the planet.”
—Ed Yong, author of New York Times bestseller I Contain Multitudes, staff writer at The Atlantic
The book's out in May, but you can pre-order it now.
“No one unravels the mysteries of science as brilliantly and compellingly as Carl Zimmer, and he has proven it again with She Has Her Mother's Laugh—a sweeping, magisterial book that illuminates the very nature of who we are.”
—David Grann, staff writer at The New Yorker, and author most recently of Killers of the Flower Moon
“Humans have long noticed something remarkable, namely that organisms are similar but not identical to their parents—in other words, that some traits can be inherited. From this observation has grown the elegant science of genetics, with its dazzling medical breakthroughs. And from this has also grown the toxic pseudosciences of eugenics, Lysenkoism and Nazi racial ideology. Carl Zimmer traces the intertwined histories of the science and pseudoscience of heredity. Zimmer writes like a dream, teaches a ton of accessible science, and provides the often intensely moving stories of the people whose lives have been saved or destroyed by this topic. I loved this book.”
—Robert Sapolsky, Professor of biology and neurology at Stanford University, and author most recently of New York Times bestseller Behave
“She Has Her Mother's Laugh is a masterpiece–a career-best work from one of the world’s premier science writers, on a topic that literally touches every person on the planet.”
—Ed Yong, author of New York Times bestseller I Contain Multitudes, staff writer at The Atlantic
The book's out in May, but you can pre-order it now.
November 17, 2017
Can We Use Heredity to Wipe Out Malaria?
For my column this week for the New York Times, I take a look at one particularly astonishing use for CRISPR, the gene-editing technology. We might be able to use it to override the usual rules of genetics and spread a gene into a wild population. Scientists have proposed using this "gene drive" to wipe out invasive species, or to drive down malaria by killing off mosquitoes. But a new study suggests that CRISPR gene drive shows just how carefully we should think about this idea before putting it into practice. It could prove much more powerful than previously appreciated. Rather than changing genes in a particular place, it could race around the world.
I'll have much more to say about CRISPR and gene drive--and heredity in general--in She Has Her Mother's Laugh , coming out in May.
I'll have much more to say about CRISPR and gene drive--and heredity in general--in She Has Her Mother's Laugh , coming out in May.
October 11, 2017
She Has Her Mother's Laugh: A Cover!
I'm thrilled to share the cover for my upcoming book, "She Has Her Mother's Laugh: What Heredity Is, Is Not, and May Become." The jacket design is the work of Pete Garceau, and the art was created by Sandra Culliton.
In the book, I offer a history of heredity--how we came to understand it, how it has shaped our lives, and how we are poised to alter it. It is coming out in May 2018.
For more information, and to pre-order a copy, please visit my publisher's page: http://bit.ly/SheHasHerMothersLaugh
