First Excerpt from "She Has Her Mother's Laugh"
At long last, I can start sharing some of the stuff in my new book, which arrives in book stores one week from today. (You can pre-order it now.)
She Has Her Mother's Laugh is all about heredity, including forms of heredity that don't get as much attention as they deserve. This morning's New York Times has an excerpt about one of those unexpected forms: our inner heredity. Our development into human beings begins with one fertilized egg dividing in two--into a pair of "daughter cells," as scientists call them--which divide in turn. You can draw our entire body as a genealogy of mother and daughter cells. And in some of the body's lineages, genes mutate, turning us into mosaics. We're only starting to grapple with what this genetic diversity in our bodies means for our lives.
The artwork for this excerpt is both lovely and spot-on, giving nods to DNA, family trees, and real trees (which are exceptionally mosaic, giving rise to the notion that witches ride on brooms--I explain how in the excerpt and book). Thanks to Jason Holley for the image.
I'll be in Washington on June 6 to talk about She Has Her Mother's Laugh at Kramerbooks. I'm delighted to announce that the intrepid writer Ed Yong (author of I Contain Multitudes) will join me there for a conversation about heredity. As long as he doesn't get us onto the topic of hippo feces (which, yes, are very, very important), it will be an excellent evening.
I'm continuing to add new book-related events to my talks page and the list of talks at the end of the newsletter.
Yesterday, Science reviewed She Has Her Mother's Laugh: "Zimmer is one of the best science journalists of our times, with a long history of setting the bar for beautiful, clear, and scholarly writing. He is true to form in this book…She Has Her Mother’s Laugh is more than a historical account of the field of genetics. It’s a treasure trove of curious facts, contextual tidbits, and up-to-date reports on the trials and tribulations of heredity told in a most entertaining way.”
May 30, 2018 Harvard Book Store
May 31, 2018 RJ Julia Bookstore, Madison CT
June 1, 2018 World Science Festival, New York (In conversation with Maria Konnikova)
June 6, 2018 Kramerbooks, Washington DC (In conversation with Ed Yong)
June 19, 2018 Commonwealth Club Silicon Valley, Palo Alto CA
June 20, 2018 Denver Museum of Nature and Science
New->June 21-24, 2018 Aspen Ideas Festival (details to come)
September 20, 2018 University of Bath (UK), Evolution in the 21st Century (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)
New->November 7, 2018 University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia (details to come)
November 14, 2018 Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, NJ (details to come)
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
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