Upcoming Talks

I'm bound for LA today to talk about Microcosm. My talk is part of the Zocalo lecture series. I'll be talking tonight at 7:30 pm at the Skirball Cultural Center. Here are the details.
At noon EST, I'll be talking on "Word of Mouth," a radio show coming from New Hampshire Public Radio. The topic will be my recent article on global warming and mass extinctions in Yale Environment 360. You can listen live (look for the mp3 stream here, or look for a podcast on the show page.)
This is a crazy day--an eight hour drive to visit relatives, followed promptly by a last-minute appearance live on the radio show Science Fantastic, hosted by physicist Michio Kaku. I'm about to go on (6 pm EST) to talk about E. coli, Darwin, and much more. Listen live!
I'm heading to the New York Botanical Gardens to moderate a World Science Festival panel on crops, biodiversity, seed banks, and the amazing life of the Soviet scientist Nikolai Vavilov. (For some background, see this New Yorker article from last year.) If you come to the panel, stick around for the Cafe Scientifique afterwards. And check out the "Darwin's Garden" exhibit. You'll find me snooping around the cycads and ferns.
As I mentioned previously, I'll be moderating a panel at the World Science Festival in New York on Thursday. It will be about art, science, and homeland security. In 2004 artist Steven Kurtz was accused of terrorism when police came across bacteria and biological equipment in his house. After the terrorism charges were dropped, Kurtz still faced charges of mail and wire fraud until last month. Kurtz will be speaking for the first time in public about the case since the charges were dropped, and he'll also be joined by critic Eugene Thacker and bioethicist George Annas. Here are the specifics…
I'll be giving three talks in the next couple weeks in New York. First up, my lecture at Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn Tuesday. It's possible I'll be able to post the video of the lecture later--I'll let you know. (Out of curiosity--anybody know a good way to combine video and powerpoint slides online? I've seen it done, but not on any open social video sites.) Then come two appearances in the World Science Festival. First up: Thursday, May 29th 7 pm, I'll be moderating a panel about Steven Kurtz, the bioartist who was charged with terrorism. (He was also the subject of a movie,…
Do you live in Brooklyn? Or a subway ride from SUNY Downstate Medical Center? Are you free Tuesday May 20 at 4 pm? Then swing over for a lecture I'll be giving on the evolution of mind. Here's a copy of the poster (full size here). And while I'll certainly be talking about human minds, you can expect other species to make cameos, from smart flies to clever hyenas to mindless E. coli. They all fit together into a big picture. See you there. (PS: Just a reminder--I'll also be at Harvard Book Store in Cambridge on Friday and the Field Museum in Chicago on Saturday to talk about Microcosm.)
I'm heading to Colorado to give a talk at the University of Denver tomorrow. The subject of the talk is my book Soul Made Flesh, about the birth of neurology in the 1600s (see PZ Myer's kind review here). I'll also be talking about the experience of writing books about science. Of course, the first thing I'll have to confess is that most of the experience of writing Soul Made Flesh--going to libraries, paging through physical books--is already fairly obsolete. If you live around Denver and are free at 12:30 pm Tuesday, come by. Here are the details.
I'm heading to Sarasota, Florida, to talk tonight about the evolution of whales. If anybody bearing oranges gives me a hard time, I'll let you know. The talk will be part of Mote Marine Laboratory's public lecture series. Here are the details. If you're in the neighborhood, come on by.
My talk last week at Carleton University in Ottawa went well--here's an interview with the university's magazine, and here's a report from someone in the audience. More talks are coming up-- Next week: The evolution of whales at Mote Marine Laboratory in Sarasota, Florida. Next month: Soul Made Flesh at the University of Denver. And plenty more coming in May and June... [Update: I should also mention that if there's anyone interested in my giving a talk, the good people at the Knopf Speakers Bureau will be able to help you. ]
I've got some more information about my upcoming talks. On February 27, I'll be in Ottawa, delivering the Discovery Lecture at Carleton University. It will be called "The Darwin Beat: Dispatches from the Frontiers of Evolution." Here's the link to the lecture page. More updates to come--I'll post them here, over at carlzimmer.com, and on Facebook. Update--Talk link fixed...
I've got some more talks coming up that I want to let you know about--especially those of you around Lincoln, Nebraska or Sarasota, Florida--as well as those of you who like to go to meetings about parasites... 1. DARWIN DAY: I'll be doing my part to celebrate, at the University of Nebraska. My talk will be this Friday. I'll be talking about what bacteria could have taught Darwin about evolution--drawing in part from my upcoming book, Microcsom. Here's the UNL link with details (Facebook event). 2. THE ORIGIN OF WHALES: Mote Marine Laboratory runs a great series of public lectures. On March…
I'll be yammering this week. First stop on the yak fest, tomorrow morning, is over in New Haven, where I'll be running the first session of a two-part science writing workshop for science graduate students at Yale. It's my second year at this, so I'm hoping it goes smoothly. We're going to record it and post at least some of it on Yale's Itunes site as a free podcast. I'll let you know when that becomes available. Then I head for Washington DC, where I'll be moderating a discussion Wednesday about synthetic biology. It's part of the Seed/Schering-Plough Science + Society Series, in which…
A few days ago, my family was wandering the ruins of the Roman Forum. I explained to my daughters that the fragments of pillars around us were very old. Veronica, who is four, wanted to know how old. They were made before she was born, I explained. Before her sister Charlotte was born. Before Charlotte was born? she asked. Actually, before I was born, I said. They were built before I was born, and fell down before I was born. That last part was a bit too much for her. Trying to comprehend deep time was actually the reason we were in Rome in the first place. I was invited to give a lecture…
I'm neglecting my blog at the moment, because I have to finish up a bunch of stories before I take off on a pretty long trip. Along the way, I'm giving a talk at the Rome Science Festival about mass extinctions. If, unlike me, you can read Italian, you can get the details here. I'm also supposed to write up a summary of the lecture for Il Sole 24 Ore, an Italian newspaper. I'll post the original English when I get back for anyone who's interested. In the meantime, there's plenty of good stuff out there to read. For example, check out Linnaeus' Legacy # 3, a carnival of taxonomy-related blogs…
I've updated the talks page on my web site after a long stretch of neglect. I've included links to podcasts and video of previous appearances, and what information I have at this point about upcoming talks. It's going to be a fairly busy spring, with talks hither and yon on extinctions, whales, Darwin, and science writing. And that doesn't even include talking about my next book, Microcosm. Anyone interested in having me give a lecture or interview about Microcosm when it comes out in the spring is welcome get in touch. Knopf Speakers Bureau can handle requests for lectures on other topics.
If you live anywhere near my home town of Guilford, Connecticut, I'd be delighted if you could join me Thursday at 7:30 at the Guilford Free Library for a talk, "Will Global Warming Redraw the Map of Life?" (flyer pdf) I'll be discussing extinction projections, assisted migration, and more.
At the end of February I joined John Rennie, editor in chief of Scientific American, to talk to students at the New York University journalism program about blogging about science. There's a post about the talk now up, including some podcast excerpts, on the the Scienceline blog from the NYU Science Health and Environmental Reporting Program. More here.
Next week I'll be heading to Utah. Southern Utah University asked me to be their Visiting Eccles Scholar, which means that I'll be spending a couple days talking with students and faculty. I'll also be giving two talks that are open to the public. The first, Wednesday evening, will be on global warming and extinctions, about which I wrote an article for the New York Times a couple months back. The next evening I'll be talking about E. coli and the meaning of life. It's the first time I'll be speaking about my book in public, so I'm looking forward to sharing some of the stuff I learned while…
Tomrrow I'm heading down to New York to take part in the "Inside Out" speaker series at New York University's Department of Journalism. John Rennie, editor-in-chief at Scientific American, and I will try to answer the question, "Can two prominent magazine journalists find happiness blogging?" The inquisition, run by LA Times reporter and NYU writer-in-residence Lee Hotz is open to journalism students and faculty. It will take place the fifth floor atrium of 10 Washington Place, at 6 p.m on Tuesday. See you there.