Friday's Elk, June 29, 2019

Wall Street Journal review and more
I'm back from the long journey west. Since I last wrote, there's been more news about She Has Her Mother's Laugh.

1. In the Wall Street Journal, William Saletan gets it--

"Nature’s laws are violated all the time, and the cardinal violator is nature itself. This is the paradox that Carl Zimmer explores in She Has Her Mother’s Laugh: The Powers, Perversions, and Potential of Heredity. Mr. Zimmer, a New York Times science columnist and author, is careful and well-informed. So when he says that research is overturning things you were taught in biology classes, he’s worth heeding. Acquired traits can be inherited. Biological time can turn backward. And monsters are real."

2. Nature Genetics, the top genetics journal in the world, gives a shout-out to the book in the current issue's editorial, urging care in drawing conclusions from new studies on the link between genes and intelligence and personality--

"In his superb book on heredity, She Has Her Mother’s Laugh, Carl Zimmer discusses how the proper understanding of heritable influences on intelligence and the related trait of educational attainment could be used to guide the design and evaluation of improved educational strategies. Intelligence, like height, is highly heritable, polygenically inherited and depends environmentally upon nutrition and opportunity. For this new knowledge to be used effectively, he argues, the very real genetic influences should be considered constitutional potential, rather than the more frequently grasped concept of genetic essence."

3. The Times of Israel interviewed me about the book.

4.Here's an episode of the Good Life Podcast in which I have a lively conversation with host Jonathan Field.

5. The New York Times Book Review included the book in its list of recommendations this week.
  How old can we get?
Two years ago I wrote about a provocative study in which scientists claimed we have a fixed maximum lifespan of 115 years or so. Now comes a new study of 105+year-old Italians that suggests that if there is a limit, we're nowhere close to it. And maybe some interesting biology happens inside of people after they cross the century mark. Here's my column on the ongoing debate in the New York Times

  More talks
I've added some new talks to my list below. More to come!
 

NEW July 9, 2018 Breakwater Books, Guilford CT

September 20, 2018 University of Bath (UK), Evolution in the 21st Century

NEW October 4, 2018 92nd Street Y, New York (Panel with Maria Konnikova, Nathan Lents, and Sebastian Seung. More details to come)

October 17, 2018 Colorado State University: Murray Honors Visiting Scholar Lecture (details to come)

October 19, 2018 CSICon, Las Vegas

October 25, 2018 Mount Holyoke College (details to come)

November 7, 2018 University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia (details to come)

NEW November 13, 2018 House of Speakeasy, New York (details to come)

November 14, 2018 Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, NJ (details to come)

If you've enjoyed reading She Has Her Mother's Laugh, please rate/review it on your favorite book site, such as Goodreads or Amazon. Thanks!

You can find information and ordering links for my other books here. You can also follow me on Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads, and LinkedIn. If someone forwarded this email to you, you can subscribe to it here.

Best wishes, Carl