Carl Zimmer

Carl Zimmer

Science Writer

Carl Zimmer is a science writer, lecturer, and frequent guest on such radio programs as Fresh Air and This American Life. His books include "Soul Made Flesh," "Evolution: The Triumph of an Idea," and "Parasite Rex." In addition to writing books, Zimmer contributes articles to The New York Times, as well as magazines including National GeographicTimeScientific AmericanScience, and Popular Science. He also writes an award-winning blog, The Loom. From 1994 to 1998 Zimmer was a senior editor at Discover, where he remains a contributing editor and writes a monthly column about the brain.

Zimmer is a lecturer at Yale University, where he teaches writing about science and the environment. He is also the first Visiting Scholar at the Science, Health, and Environment Reporting Program at New York University’s Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute.

Zimmer is a Big Think Delphi Fellow.

5 min
MIT students now generate their own strains of e coli for class projects. But synthetic biology is about to get a whole lot bigger.
9 min
Could deadly viruses’ rapid evolution be turned against them? And could we ever control the pace of our own evolution?
7 min
Everyone knows we have hereditary viruses in our genome. What scientists are just learning is how many there are—and how many we’ve come to depend on.