It's been a big news week--and not just when it comes to politics.
In yesterday's New York Times, I reported on the discovery of the oldest known fossils of our species. Their discovery represents a huge jump back in time. Before now, the oldest known fossils of Homo sapiens were 195,000 years old. The new ones are over 300,000 years old. Aside from breaking records, the fossils also tell us new things about how our species evolved. A picture of one of the fossils made the front page of the paper, making for quite a contrast with news about Comey's testimony, terrorism in Tehran, and all the rest of our species's current concerns. You can read the online version of my story here.
Here are a couple other pieces I've written since my last email.
1. Scientists who study intelligence have long wondered what role biology plays in the differences in people's test scores. In recent years, they've discovered genetic variants that influence those differences. While each only plays a tiny role, they may guide us to particular aspects of the human brain. Here's my column on the latest advances in this research.
2. Regardless of the blithe dismissals of global warming's importance by the current administration, scientists are continuing to uncover worrying clues that climate change will cause wide-ranging, damaging impacts on the world's ecosystems. I wrote about miniature ecosystems that scientists are experimenting on to see how high temperatures and high levels of carbon dioxide will alter the ocean's food webs.
Since my last Friday's Elk, I've been finishing up my book on heredity, She Has Her Mother's Laugh, and showing it to a few people for comments and corrections. Fellow scribe Ed Yong approves, thankfully. The book will probably be coming out in late spring 2018. I'll send out more information when I get it.
On the talk front: a couple months ago, I gave a talk about getting my genome sequenced. It's now on YouTube.
And here are my upcoming talks...
June 25-28, Aspen Ideas Festival
October 11, Stony Brook University, New York: Provost's Lecture
October 27-29, San Francisco: World Conference of Science Journalists
November 15, University of Oxford: Twelfth Annual Baruch Blumberg Lecture
January 3-7, 2018, San Francisco: Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology Annual Meeting, Plenary Lecture
You can also follow me on Twitter, Facebook , LinkedIn, and Google+. And there's always carlzimmer.com.
Best wishes, Carl
If you'd like to learn more about my books, you can visit my web site
"Friday's Elk" is free. If you'd like to support my writing, you can pay what you'd like for an optional subscription