​A Virtual Conversation with Carl Zimmer, Author of Life’s Edge: The Search For What It Means To Be Alive

Thursday, March 11, at 7 pm EST on Zoom

Science Writers in New York welcomes back New York Times science journalist Carl Zimmer (@carlzimmer) for a virtual conversation with SWINY co-chair David Levine (@dlloydlevine) about his new book, Life’s Edge: The Search for What it Means to be Alive (published March 9, Penguin Random House).

In Life’s Edge, Carl explores the nature of life and investigates why scientists have struggled to draw its boundaries. He handles pythons, goes spelunking to visit hibernating bats, and even tries his hand at evolution. Carl visits scientists making miniature human brains to ask when life begins and follows a voyage that delivered microscopic animals to the moon, where they now exist in a state between life and death. From the coronavirus to consciousness, Carl demonstrates that biology, for all its advances, has yet to achieve its greatest triumph: a full theory of life. 

About Carl Zimmer

Carl began writing about science for The New York Times in 2004, where he now writes his weekly column “Matter.” He has won many awards for his work, including the Stephen Jay Gould Prize, awarded by the Society for the Study of Evolution to recognize individuals whose sustained efforts have advanced public understanding of evolutionary science.

Carl is the author of 14 books about science. His most recent, She Has Her Mother’s Laugh: The Power, Perversions, and Potential of Heredity, was published in 2018.

Read a Review in the New York Times that featured a long essay Carl adapted from Life’s Edge. It’s called “The Secret Life of a Coronavirus.”

Have a question for Carl Zimmer you would like answered? Submit it here. 

When:
Thursday, March 11
7 pm to 8 pm EST

Register:
https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_o4Y0ghvrQSWyl6qMHEIXAQ