Carl Zimmer
Carl Zimmer writes about the mysteries of life through books, New York Times reporting, podcasts, and his newsletter, Friday’s Elk.
At 100 nudges, fangea sends Carl’s team an official invite.
🔒 Star boosts open once Carl claims this page.
Latest
Carl’s happenings, collected from public sources, plus his backstory and Starbook, where fans write.
Known for
Overview
- Work
- Science writer, author, columnist, and podcast host
- Education
- Yale University, B.A. in English, 1987
- First book
- At the Water’s Edge, 1998
- Long-running home
- The New York Times: contributor since 2004, columnist since 2013
- Newsletter
- Friday’s Elk
Mini bio
How it started.
An English major at Yale, Carl found his way into science journalism through an assistant copy editor job at Discover. Fact-checking taught him how to question experts and explain complicated research to a broad audience.
Finding his readers.
His first book, At the Water’s Edge, appeared in 1998. He launched The Loom in 2003, building an online home for biology stories. In 2004, a freelance pitch about autumn leaves began his relationship with The New York Times; he became a columnist in 2013.
Following life’s questions.
His books range from the lives of parasites to heredity and the boundary between living and nonliving things. She Has Her Mother’s Laugh brought major recognition, including the 2019 Science in Society book award. Air-Borne turns his attention to life in the atmosphere.
Beyond the page.
Carl teaches writing at Yale, where he was appointed professor adjunct in 2017. He also takes biology into audio, including Radiolab and the 2025 series The Future of Aging. Friday’s Elk keeps readers connected to his writing.
Creditschronological, newest first
Books
- 2025Air-Borne: The Hidden History of the Life We BreatheAuthor
- 2025Evolution: Making Sense of Life, fourth editionCo-author with Douglas Emlen
- 2023The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2023Editor and introduction author
- 2021Life’s Edge: The Search for What It Means to Be AliveAuthor
- 2018She Has Her Mother’s LaughAuthor
- 2011Science Ink: Tattoos of the Science ObsessedAuthor
- 2011A Planet of VirusesAuthor
- 2000Parasite RexAuthor
- 1998At the Water’s EdgeAuthor; first book
Audio
- 2025The Future of AgingHost
- 2025Revenge of the MiasmaReporter, Radiolab
Awards
- Science in Society Journalism Award2019 · Book category, She Has Her Mother’s Laugh. Awarded by the National Association of Science Writers.
- Online Journalism Award2017 · Explanatory Reporting, Small Newsroom, for STAT’s Game of Genomes, with the project team.
- Stephen Jay Gould Prize2016 · Recognized by the Society for the Study of Evolution for advancing public understanding of evolutionary science.
Quotes
it’s been just a fantastic way for me to learn about the world.Carl Zimmer, Big Think interview
Describing how conversations with scientists made science writing a way to keep learning.
Trivia
- An asteroid, a mutant bacterial strain, and a tapeworm species have been named after him.
- Science Ink grew from a question he asked on his blog in 2007 about scientists’ tattoos.
- His first New York Times story grew out of a pitch about why leaves change color in autumn.
- For Game of Genomes, he enlisted scientists to investigate his own genome.
Find Carl
Follow his reporting, book updates, and conversations about life.
Are you Carl Zimmer?
Fans built this page. Claim it to connect with them and unlock Star boosts, or request a takedown if you’d rather it not exist.