Happy July! Here are a couple things I published this week. I've also got a big project to unveil soon that I hope you'll enjoy. I'll spill some details in next week's newsletter.
Epigenetics is one of those subjects that's irresistible to a science writer. Our DNA is enveloped by proteins and molecular caps that influence how active our genes can get. Some studies have suggested these epigenetic marks are the way in which the environment can reach into our cells and alter the workings of our DNA. But there's a big debate in the epigenetics field about just how meaningful that research is. The studies may only be uncovering biological randomness, or perhaps some other process in our cells. Given that I've written my own share of articles about epigenetics (here and here, for example), I decided I needed to pay some attention to the skeptics, too. That's the subject of my column this week in the New York Times.
My new Science Happens video is out. I pay a visit to the lab of Amita Sehgal at Penn, where she studies the sleeping habits of flies. It turns out that flies doze a lot like we do, down to the genes that control their inner clock. Check it out.
July 31: Plenary lecture at the annual meeting of the Botanical Society of America in Savannah: "Plants Are Weird: Epigenetics, Journalism, and the Alien Beauty of Botany"
September 8: University of Nebraska. Lecture: A Journey to the Center of the Brain. Details to come
January 28-29, 2017 Rancho Mirage Writers Festival
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Best wishes, Carl
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