{"id":21081,"date":"2026-02-02T08:14:34","date_gmt":"2026-02-02T13:14:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/?p=21081"},"modified":"2026-01-30T08:48:22","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T13:48:22","slug":"renowned-author-and-journalist-explores-ai-and-the-future-of-science-at-elizabethtown-college-on-feb-12","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/2026\/02\/02\/renowned-author-and-journalist-explores-ai-and-the-future-of-science-at-elizabethtown-college-on-feb-12\/","title":{"rendered":"Renowned Author and Journalist Explores AI and the Future of Science at Elizabethtown College on Feb. 12"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Elizabethtown College will host renowned New York Times columnist, author, and science journalist <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.etown.edu\/offices\/president\/lecture-series.aspx#zimmer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Carl Zimmer<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> on Thursday, Feb. 12, at 7 p.m. for the annual Lefever Lecture in Leffler Chapel &amp; Performance Center.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Regarded by New York Magazine as<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cthe country\u2019s most respected science journalist,\u201d Zimmer will present his lecture, \u201cThe Age of AI: Cracking the Code of Life,\u201d where he will examine how artificial intelligence is transforming biology. In his talk, he will offer a glimpse into a not-so-distant future when computers can discover how to make new kinds of cells, and possibly new types of life.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The author of 15 books about science, Zimmer\u2019s latest work, \u201c<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/carlzimmer.com\/books\/airborne\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Air-Borne: The Hidden History of the Life We Breathe<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">,\u201d was named one of Smithsonian Magazine\u2019s <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.smithsonianmag.com\/science-nature\/the-ten-best-science-books-of-2025-180987773\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Ten Best Science Books of 2025.<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Zimmer writes the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/column\/origins\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cOrigins\u201d<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> column for the New York Times. His writing has earned a number of awards, including the<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.evolutionsociety.org\/content\/society-awards-and-prizes\/the-stephen-jay-gould-prize.html\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Stephen Jay Gould Prize<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, awarded by the Society for the Study of Evolution.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Zimmer will serve as the second of three internationally known speakers as part of this year\u2019s 2025-26 Elizabethtown College Lecture Series. The Lefever Lecture is free and open to the public. <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.givecampus.com\/schools\/ElizabethtownCollege\/events\/2025-2026-lecture-series\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Registration is required.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Lefever Lecture is made possible by a generous endowed gift from Ernest W. Lefever &#8217;42, H\u201992.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Elizabethtown College will host renowned New York Times columnist, author, and science journalist Carl Zimmer on Thursday, Feb. 12, at 7 p.m. for the annual Lefever Lecture in Leffler Chapel &amp; Performance Center.\u00a0 Regarded by New York Magazine as \u201cthe country\u2019s most respected science journalist,\u201d Zimmer will present his lecture, \u201cThe Age of AI: Cracking [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":140,"featured_media":21082,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1338,775],"tags":[2080,2548,197,1350,2454,2606],"class_list":["post-21081","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academics-and-research","category-campus","tag-ai","tag-carl-zimmer","tag-elizabethtown-college","tag-etown","tag-lefever-lecture","tag-science-journalism","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21081","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/140"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21081"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21081\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21083,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21081\/revisions\/21083"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21082"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21081"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21081"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21081"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}