15 Comments

I so enjoyed this article. You are a wonderful story-star- teller-teacher… & the questions you offer up: breath-taking and -giving.

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This newsletter really blew my mind! It's amazing how you really manage to WOW us. 🥰 Thanks for the lovely mention too! I love you. 😘

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I'm only 20% in, but loved learning that there is such an award as Molecule of the Year. New life goal unlocked.

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Jellyfish and, for my money octopi, are fascinating creatures. I'd have an octopus as a roommate if he didn't keep leaving the bathroom door open in the middle of the night and pay his rent on time!

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A squid might be better, they could learn to write, producing their OWN INK ! 🦑🦑 A squid & a writing spider - a creative team.

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Hmm. If 50% of our bodies is bacteria and 60% is water, we're -10% human. Do we even exist?

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Thanks so much for the mention Mike! I'm going to circle back here, but need to get to bed now... more complete documentation of the Philly event will be sent out in 5 hours ;)

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This is a good one, Mike. I very much get you on "approaching a scoop"! It is tantalizing to imagine that I might be discovering something nobody's ever discovered before, and i do believe those moments have happened for us, whether or not we fully recognize them.

Our egos do need to be fed in order to encourage us, at least to some degree. Here's me feeding yours today: nobody has ever written about this the way you have, and many more folks are going to wonder about critters in clouds now. Maybe they'll even read some Vonnegut or Clarke as a result, who knows. Imaginations are going to take off, and that's the important thing.

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At the risk of praising you, this is such an excellent essay. Thank you, Mike. All the best, John.

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haha! I am quite sure there is no other explanation for Carl Zimmer’s doings other than time travel. Astute of you to recognize that, but you glossed over it so quickly.

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You are my people.

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I’m about halfway through Zimmer’s book Air-borne. It’s one of his top books I’ve read (and I’ve read them all). It’s going to land somewhere in my top 5 favourite nonfiction books. Highly recommend not just for the subject matter but the history of the field and side notes to it, like Lindenberg’s fascination with eugenics and fall into an admiration of Germany’s policies under Hitler. Zimmer makes the connections between the air-borne life and numerous historical events and interesting characters.

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Fascinating. Thank you!

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SO MUCH TO PROCESS ! I just returned from getting some relatively healthy fast - food & some slightly overdue fresh air ( again, relatively ) after not venturing out for 3 - 4 weeks in a spare cranky power - chair.

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Amazing stuff

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