To everyone marked by science, both within and without
STERLING and the distinctive Sterling logo are registered trademarks of Sterling Publishing Co., Inc. © 2011 by Carl Zimmer and Scott & Nix, Inc. Foreword © 2011 by Mary Roach All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. ISBN 978-1-4027-8360-9 (hardcover) ISBN 978-1-4027-8935-1 (ebook) Prepared and produced by Scott & Nix, Inc. 150 West 28th Street, Ste. 1103 New York, NY 10001 www.scottandnix.com A portion of the proceeds from Science Ink will be donated to DonorsChoose to support science classroom projects.
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The cover was designed by Charles Nix and Alexandra Zsigmond. The book was designed by Charles Nix.
Contents FOREWORD BY MARY ROACH INTRODUCTION
Mathematics Physics Chemistry Astronomy Earth Sciences DNA Darwin Paleontology Evolution Natural History Humanity Neuroscience What the Mind Makes ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ABOUT CARL ZIMMER ABOUT MARY ROACH ABOUT DONORS CHOOSE VISUAL INDEX
Foreword
UNTIL I SAT down with this book, my favorite tattoo belonged to a type designer named Jim Parkinson. “Born to Letter,” it says, above a menacing black skull smoking a joint. I liked the surprise of it, the sly humor. You don’t expect large, showy tattoos on lettering professionals. And you don’t expect them on scientists. Or I didn’t. But this is silly. Of course scientists have tattoos. Scientists, as much as bikers or gang members, have the requisite motivator for a trip to the tattoo parlor: a passion that defines them. If you like the Mets, you buy a baseball cap. If you love the Mets—or chloroplasts or Billy Bob Thornton—you get a tattoo. The word love appears many times in this book, applied variously to pure mathematics, experimental physics, and marine fossils. That tattoo artists today receive more requests for DNA helices than they do for “Mom” (and I am guessing here) can only be good. Tattoos mark their wearers as members of a tribe. In the language and symbols of the tribe, the tattoo communicates that which is meaningful: I prefer Harleys; I have killed three men; I know a lot about fonts. Scientists have the best symbols of all. I can’t parse the exact statement Cassie Backus is making with the symbols for a noise circuit, but it looks extremely cool there between her shoulder blades. Ditto the glottal stop symbol on linguist Luzius Thöny’s pinky and the Schrödinger wave function equation on Brittany Hughes’s back (p. 35). The symbols of science set the tattoo-wearer apart from the rest of us at the same time they draw us in with their mystery and beauty. I have never seen Carl Zimmer without his clothes, but I am told he has no tattoos. As a science writer, he belongs to no tribe. He is the interloper, the interpreter, a dozen United Nation headsets going at once. To write this book, Zimmer had to learn all the languages, decode all the symbols. This is no coffee-table tattoo book—to absorb it is to acquire instant science literacy. Zimmer explains the tattoos in brief, clear, eloquent essays. You try doing this with the Fourier Transform, the Dirac Equation, and the Lazarus Taxon.
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