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Carl Zimmer
@carlzimmer
@nytimes
columnist, author carlzimmer.com & @Carl_Zimmer@mastodon.social & threads.net/@cwzimmer & bsky.app/profile/carlzi…
ConnecticutJoined March 2008
2,412 Following
288.8K Followers

Carl Zimmer’s Tweets

Carl Zimmer
@carlzimmer
Dear Mr. President: It is important that you and everyone else understand the science of #covid19 because people’s lives depend on it. Let me correct the mistakes in your tweet. 1/7
Quote Tweet
Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump
So now the Fake News @nytimes is tracing the CoronaVirus origins back to Europe, NOT China. This is a first! I wonder what the Failing New York Times got for this one? Are there any NAMED sources? They were recently thrown out of China like dogs, and obviously want back in. Sad!
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Carl Zimmer
@carlzimmer
And one more thing: reporters for the New York Times got thrown out of China after helping to expose how the Chinese government played down the severity of #covid19 in the early weeks of the outbreak. I am proud to write for the same newspaper. 7/7
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Carl Zimmer
@carlzimmer
Scientists have discovered a remarkable human who lived in Siberia 90,000 years ago. Her mother was a Neanderthal, and her father was a Denisovan. Here’s my
@nytimes
story on our emerging view of human hybrids:
nytimes.com
A Blended Family: Her Mother Was Neanderthal, Her Father Something Else Entirely (Published 2018)
Genetic analysis of bones discovered in a Siberian cave hints that the prehistoric world may have been filled with “hybrid” humans.
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Carl Zimmer
@carlzimmer
A new study indicates sudden global warming stripped oxygen from the ocean 252 million years ago and led to the greatest mass extinction ever. The parallels to now are way too close for comfort. My story for
@nytimes
nytimes.com
The Planet Has Seen Sudden Warming Before. It Wiped Out Almost Everything. (Published 2018)
In some ways, the planet's worst mass extinction — 250 million years ago, at the end of the Permian Period — may parallel climate change today.
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Carl Zimmer
@carlzimmer
"When people just see you standing up there, they sometimes think you’re being complicit in the distortions emanating from the stage. But I felt that if I stepped down, that would leave a void. Someone’s got to not be afraid to speak out the truth.”
nytimes.com
Fauci on What Working for Trump Was Really Like (Published 2021)
From denialism to death threats, Dr. Anthony S. Fauci describes a fraught year as an adviser to President Donald J. Trump on the Covid-19 pandemic.
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Carl Zimmer
@carlzimmer
At the White House press conference, Fauci is talking to reporters about coronaviruses binding to ACE2 receptors in the airway. Welcome to 2021. 🤯
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Carl Zimmer
@carlzimmer
Starting Tuesday, MIT is offering a weekly class to undergraduates **and the public** called “COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2 and the Pandemic.” An impressive lineup of guest speakers are coming. Livestream info here:
biology.mit.edu
New Subject Offering: "COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2 and the Pandemic"
In Fall 2020, all MIT students and the general public are welcome to join Professors Richard Young and Facundo Batista as they discuss the science of the pandemic during this new class.
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Carl Zimmer
@carlzimmer
Scientists wanted to know how the virus reached the city. Studying the virus’s genes, they found the answer: mostly from Europe. The virus did not originate in Europe, but it got to New York through Europe. 5/7
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Carl Zimmer
@carlzimmer
"I would try to, you know, calmly explain that you find out if something works by doing an appropriate clinical trial; you get the information, you give it a peer review. And he’d say, 'Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, this stuff really works.’"
nytimes.com
Fauci on What Working for Trump Was Really Like (Published 2021)
From denialism to death threats, Dr. Anthony S. Fauci describes a fraught year as an adviser to President Donald J. Trump on the Covid-19 pandemic.
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Carl Zimmer
@carlzimmer
On getting mysterious powder in the mail: " I looked at it somewhat fatalistically. It had to be one of three things: A hoax. Or anthrax, which meant I’d have to go on Cipro for a month. Or if it was ricin, I was dead, so bye-bye.”
nytimes.com
Fauci on What Working for Trump Was Really Like (Published 2021)
From denialism to death threats, Dr. Anthony S. Fauci describes a fraught year as an adviser to President Donald J. Trump on the Covid-19 pandemic.
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Carl Zimmer
@carlzimmer
As infected people moved, some brought the virus to other countries. People in those countries became infected. Some died. 3/7
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Carl Zimmer
@carlzimmer
Vaccine makers started work on coronavirus vaccines in early January, the day they got hold of the coronavirus genome. They didn’t wait for the president. nytimes.com/2020/07/17/hea
Quote Tweet
Maggie Haberman
@maggieNYT
The president credits himself with vaccine development. Moderna timeline shows it began working on a vaccine while the president was still denying the virus was spreading in the US.
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Carl Zimmer
@carlzimmer
Note: birds have many flu viruses that *never* get into us. A few bird flus have hopped into people as dead ends. Even fewer have become full-blown pandemics (sometimes via pigs). Four did so over the entire twentieth century. But when they jump, they can make quite landing...
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Carl Zimmer
@carlzimmer
"To me, it’s a strong reminder of how ready we are to ignore things we cannot imagine.” -The discovery that microbes build electric wires all over the world is mind-blowing, even for the scientists uncovering the planetary grid Here’s my
@nytimes
story
nytimes.com
Wired Bacteria Form Nature’s Power Grid: ‘We Have an Electric Planet’ (Published 2019)
Electroactive bacteria were running current through “wires” long before humans learned the trick.
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Carl Zimmer
@carlzimmer
Based on Covid-19 tests and genomes, scientists estimate that B.1.1.7 is doubling in the U.S. every 10 days. It could dominate by March. Public health measures and mass vaccination are crucial right now. Here’s my story for
@nytimes
nytimes.com
Virus Variant First Found in Britain Now Spreading Rapidly in U.S. (Published 2021)
A new study bolsters the prediction by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that the so-called B.1.1.7 variant will dominate Covid-19 cases by March.
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Carl Zimmer
@carlzimmer
Another big vaccine news day. J&J vaccine has 72% efficacy in US, which drops to 57% in South Africa, probably due to B.1.351 variant. With Novavax’s similar results yesterday, it’s a wake-up call about viral evolution. Story w/
@noah_weiland
&
@SharonLNYT
nytimes.com
Johnson & Johnson’s Vaccine Offers Strong Protection but Fuels Concern About Variants (Published...
The vaccine’s efficacy rate dropped from 72 percent in the United States to just 57 percent in South Africa, where a highly contagious variant is driving most cases.
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Carl Zimmer
@carlzimmer
I didn't think these fungi, which turn insects into zombies, could be any more remarkable. Turns out I was wrong. Some have gone through an astonishing evolutionary transformation, changing them from killers to essential parts of an insect's body. [1/15] (Image
@joaofungo
)
Image
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