The Unwritten SelfSeptember 01, 2004 – "A world without memory is a world of the present," Alan Lightman wrote in Einstein’s Dreams. "The past exists only in books, in documents. In order to know himself, each person carries his own Book of Life, which is filled with the history of his life…Without his Book of Life, a person is a snapshot, […]
London with TeensSeptember 01, 2009 – Traveling with teens to London? Senior editor Norie Quintos shares some hard-earned lessons from a recent visit with her 13- and 15-year-olds. Check past blogs on traveling with teens to New York City and Kenya. Give them a preview: Provide some context before your trip, not necessarily with history books but with novels (Sherlock Holmes,…
Did the “Marsupial Lion” Climb Trees?January 12, 2010 – Restoration of the skull of Thylacoleo. From The Ancient Life History of the Earth. Thylacoleo was one strange mammal. A close relative of living koalas, kangaroos, and wombats, the largest species of Thylacoleo were lion-sized carnivores that stalked the Australian continent between 2 million and 45 thousand years ago. Despite its popular nickname “marsupial lion”, […]
Big Science and Big Science BooksJanuary 04, 2004 – Today’s issue of Newsday has my review of Sea of Glory, Nathaniel Philbrick’s history of the first great scientific U.S. expedition. The review gets pretty harsh towards the end, despite the fact that the book is an exquisitely researched narrative of a fascinating subject. (What makes it particularly fascinating is that the expedition’s leader, Charles […]
Growing Up With DinosaursMarch 16, 2005 – I can’t remember the first time I saw the dinosaur fossils at the American Museum of Natural History, but they’ve been good friends for over thirty years. We’ve all changed a lot over that time. I’ve grown up and gotten a bit gray, while they’ve hiked up their tails, gotten a spring in their step, […]
Said the Mouse to the Other Mouse, “Dude, You Would Not Believe The Colors I’m Seeing….”March 22, 2007 – Scientists often stick genes into organism in order to create something new. Remote-controlled flies, for example, or photographic E. coli. But by creating new kinds of life, scientists can also learn about the history of life. Give a mouse human vision, for example, and you may learn something important about how our own eyes evolved. […]
A Projection of Things to Come for VeniceDecember 06, 2008 – By Ashley Thompson This week, Venice battled the highest floodwaters it’s faced in more than two decades, and the fourth-highest levels in contemporary history. Our friends over at National Geographic have a gripping photo gallery of life continuing in Venice, despite swelling seas and Mayor Massimo Cacciari’s request to tourists and residents to stay indoors.…
Blood Genes Where There Is No BloodApril 26, 2010 – In tomorrow’s New York Times, I take a look at a new way of finding disease-related genes: search their ancient evolutionary history. Scientists can find genes involved in blood vessel growth in yeast–which have no blood. They can find genes that help build human embryos in plants, where they sense gravity. It’s a twist on […]
Chimps in the land of cheeseNovember 02, 2003 – I’ll be off blogging duty for a couple days while I head out to Wisconsin to give a couple talks at UW. I’ll be talking about what chimp DNA can tell us about ourselves. I wrote about the topic last year for Natural History, but I’ll be focusing on some newer work that has come […]
Free Things to Do in San DiegoOctober 20, 2010 – Just 17 miles north of the Mexican/U.S. border lies the waterfront city of San Diego. People come from all over the world to visit famous Balboa Park and to enjoy Southern California's world-renowned beaches. Recently rated as the fifth wealthiest city in the U.S. by Forbes magazine, it seems San Diego would leave your wallet empty. However, with all its rich history and excellent weather, San Diego is full of activities that require no cash. Here's a list of free attractions and events to get you started.
Tour Guide: San Fran’s ChinatownDecember 06, 2007 – In many major U.S. cities, you’ll find a cultural hub we all know as Chinatown (unless you’re in Seattle, where it’s the politically-correct “International District“). As many people flock to Chinatown for its cheap eats, the history and cultural aspects of these places often get forgotten. That’s why the Chinese Culture Center in San Francisco…
The Whale and the AntibodyDecember 31, 2004 – Evolutionary biologists face a challenge that’s a lot like a challenge of studying ancient human history: to retrieve vanished connections. The people who live in remote Polynesia presumably didn’t sprout from the island soil like trees–they must have come from somewhere. Tracing their connection to ancestors elsewhere hasn’t been easy, in part because the islands […]
40th Anniversary of Moonwalk: Interview with Buzz AldrinJuly 20, 2009 – Text by Ryan Bradley, Photograph courtesy of NASA It’s been 40 years since Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin Jr. became the second human in history to set foot on the moon. Though he retired from NASA not long after the Apollo 11 mission, he’s still awfully vocal about how important space remains, and why we need to…
News: Hikers, Racers Mount New Searches For Steve FossettJuly 15, 2008 – Text by Contributing Editor James Vlahos Last fall’s disappearance of Steve Fossett—one of the 21st century’s most celebrated aviators, the first person to fly around the world alone and nonstop by both hot air balloon and plane—prompted one of the most extensive search and rescue efforts in U.S. history. But neither Fossett nor his presumedly…
The Long Weekend: Appleton, WisconsinJuly 17, 2008 – The Houdini-themed fiberglass “Metamorph Lion” stands guard in front of Appleton’s History Museum. I had a sense of what to expect from Appleton, Wisconsin, when I visited the most wholesome of college towns in Middle America—and on Flag Day, no less. But the genial college town proved more surprising with each cheesehead I encountered (best…
Obama Suspends Arctic DrillingMay 27, 2010 – Referred to as Obama’s Katrina, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill is officially the worst spill in U.S. history, and an environmental turned political disaster. This afternoon, under extreme pressure to act, President Obama made his most dramatic policy response yet: an announcement that the U.S. will suspend any attempts at exploratory drilling in the Arctic…