A Troika of Stories
This turned out out be a busy news week. Here are three stories I wrote for the Times.
1. On Monday I wrote about "global greening." That's the increase in photosynthesis spurred by all the carbon dioxide we're pumping into the atmosphere. It may sound like a lovely thing, but an expert on global greening I interviewed says it's no reason to celebrate--or to stop looking for a way to fight climate change.
2. On Wednesday, I covered the nomination of a new White House science advisor. This was a particularly newsworthy event, given that the post has been vacant for so long--and given how often the administration has brushed off scientists and scientific evidence. The nominee is Kelvin Droegemeier, a University of Oklahoma meteorologist. I talked with his colleagues to find out about his career, and what they expect from him when he goes to Washington.
3. And yesterday, I wrote about a fun tale of failure and discovery and tiny elephants. The Indonesian island of Flores seems to have a powerful shrinking effect on mammals that have washed onto its shores. Elephants became dwarf elephants there--twice. And humans and human relatives appear to have evolved a pygmy-sized body at least twice as well.
1. I talked with Doug Fabrizio, host of Radio West on KUER in Salt Lake City, about She Has Her Mother's Laugh. You can listen to our hourlong conversation here.
2. Sometimes there's just no substitute for the print version of a review. Here's a piece in the London Evening Standard by behavioral geneticist Robert Plomin. Thanks to Camilla Elworthy for posting this photo of the full-page treatment!
September 20, 2018 University of Bath (UK), Evolution in the 21st Century
October 4, 2018 92nd Street Y, New York: "What Makes Us Human? Panel with Maria Konnikova, Nathan Lents, and Sebastian Seung.
October 17, 2018 Colorado State University: Murray Honors Visiting Scholar Lecture (details to come)
October 19, 2018 CSICon, Las Vegas
October 23, 2018 Mount Holyoke College (PLEASE NOTE CHANGED DATE)
November 7, 2018 University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia (details to come)
November 13, 2018 House of Speakeasy, New York
November 14, 2018 Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, NJ (details to come)
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Best wishes, Carl
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