Carl Zimmer—Air-Borne: The Hidden History of the Life We Breathe

Advance copy: Backstories on books by NASW members

Air-Borne

AIR-BORNE:
THE HIDDEN HISTORY OF THE LIFE WE BREATHE
Carl Zimmer
Dutton, February 25, 2025
Hardcover, $32, eBook, $16.99, Audio Book, $19.99
Hardcover ISBN-13: 9780593473597
eBook: ISBN: 9780593473610
Audio Book: ISBN: 9798217011933

Zimmer reports:

In February 2020, I joined the ranks of science writers reporting about Covid. We struggled to make sense of a new disease as it spread across the world. One of the oddest mysteries about Covid was how it spread. It took many months for the scientific community to come to a consensus that Covid is airborne.

It puzzled me that such a basic fact about a disease could go unresolved for so long. In search of an answer, I burrowed deep into the history of aerobiology—the science of life in the air. And a strange history it proved to be, full of miasmas and biological weapons and other surprises. My agent Eric Simonoff recognized that I had found the subject for my next book.

Carl Zimmer

I wrote a proposal, which Eric presented to Stephen Morrow, my editor at Dutton. He offered me a contract, and I got additional support from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

I spent time with a number of researchers to write the book. I watched waves crash on the California coast with atmospheric scientists, who explained how the pounding surface lofts billions of microbes into the air. I tailed scientists converting a floor of a hotel in Baltimore into an influenza study, hoping to document the virus as it hopped from sick people to healthy ones. I also spent a lot of time in archives, paging through letters, scientific notebooks, and other traces left behind by the long-forgotten pioneers of aerobiology.

Writers who are starting on their first book may fret about amassing tens of thousands of words. But it's surprisingly easy to shoot past that mark and end up with a manuscript that's way too long. I ended up with my own monster when I finished my first draft of Air-Borne. I then spent months killing my darlings. It helps to think of your draft as a huge hunk of marble, which you can chisel down into a sculpture. You have to schedule a lot of time for the sculpting.

Contact info:

Carl Zimmer, carl@carlzimmer.com, http://carlzimmer.com
Bluesky: Carl Zimmer
Book: Air-Borne: The Hidden History of the Life We Breathe
Publicist: Emily Canders, 678-315-1300, ecanders@penguinrandomhouse.com
Agent: Eric Simonoff: 212-903-1160, ESimonoff@wmeagency.com

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Banner image adapted from original photo by Carl Zimmer.

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Advance Copy

The path from idea to book may take myriad routes. The Advance Copy column, started in 2000 by NASW volunteer book editor Lynne Lamberg, features NASW authors telling the stories behind their books. Authors are asked to report how they got their idea, honed it into a proposal, found an agent and a publisher, funded and conducted their research, and organized their writing process. They also are asked to share what they wish they’d known when they started or would do differently next time, and what advice they can offer aspiring authors. Lamberg edits the authors’ answers to produce the Advance Copy reports.

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