Life in a Breath – Mar 3

Earth’s air teems with invisible life. Each of us inhales roughly 100 gallons of air per hour, and the possible peril is, alas, anything but palpable: from gaseous pollutants to weaponized pathogens. The study of life in the atmosphere, aerobiology, is a particularly challenging subject. For example, scientists needed two years to finally agree that the Covid pandemic was caused by an airborne virus. Wonderfest joins the Commonwealth Club online to present science writer Carl Zimmer in discussion of his latest book, Air-Borne: The Hidden History of the Life We Breathe. The conversation will likely be breathtaking.

Carl Zimmer is the author of fifteen books about science, and his “Origins” column (on life’s diversity) appears regularly in the New York Times. Of Zimmer’s preceding book, Life’s Edge (2021), Nobel Laureate Jennifer Doudna wrote, “Carl Zimmer shows what a great suspense novel science can be. … Prepare to be enthralled.”