Natural History articles from December 2002

Natural History archives from December 2002

Who is the center of the universe? (Upfront).
December 1, 2002... It takes work, as the shrinks put it, to "de-center." While I'm burrowing through, say, the fascinating details of Neil deGrasse Tyson's column about the history of the Copernican principle in astronomy (see "Delusions of Centrality," page...

O hungry night. (The Natural Moment).
December 1, 2002... On a winter's night in the deserts of northern Mexico one might expect to hear the chilling cries of coyotes or solitary wolf baying at the moon. But another animal is often stirring: the grasshopper mouse. A high-pitched whistle led...

Handy antidote. (Letters).
December 1, 2002... The bala ants of Costa Rica, described in "Bites of Passage" ["Endpaper" by Nathan Welton, October 2002], sound like Venezuela's veinticuatro (meaning "twenty-four") ants, so called because most people spend twenty-four hours in bed after...

Dark skies over Brooklyn. (Letters).
December 1, 2002... Like Neil deGrasse Tyson, I was born in New York City, but somewhat earlier--1918 to be exact. And I can attest firsthand that the light pollution he deplores in his "Universe" column ["Let There Be Dark," October 2002] is a fairly recent...

On comets and canids. (Letters).
December 1, 2002... I thoroughly enjoyed the excerpt from Dale F. Lott's book on the American bison ["Plains Song," October 2002]. But it is clear that the author did not send his manuscript to your resident astrophysicist, Neil deGrasse Tyson. Had Mr. Lott done...

A place in the queue. (Letters).
December 1, 2002... In "Bird Sees, Bird Sings" ["Samplings," September 2002], Stephan Reebs reports that the reason for the order in which various species of birds begin to sing their dawn chorus is how well they see in low light. No argument there. But I think it...

Ingredients of life. (Letters).
December 1, 2002... Oliver Sacks ["Anybody Out There?" November 2002] notes that amino acids could have been synthesized at high temperatures early in the Earth's history, as Stanley L. Miller showed experimentally in the early 1950s. Mr. Sacks might also have...

Stalinist biology. (Letters).
December 1, 2002... In her article "The Interpretation of Genes" [October 2002], Jennie Dusheck maintains that the Soviet biologist Trofim Lysenko was discredited because he overemphasized the influence of environment on phenotype. But that influence, after all,...

The First Europeans: Treasures from the Hills of Atapuerca: who were the earliest humans in Western Europe? How long ago did they live and what were their lives like? (At The Museum).
December 1, 2002... Opening January 11, 2003, at the American Museum of Natural History, The First Europeans: Treasures from the Hills of Atapuerca is an unparalleled exhibition that addresses these questions and reveals the mysteries of ancient humans. The...

An interview with the curator of Einstein, Michael M. Shara.
December 1, 2002... Q: How can someone who's not a scientist understand relativity? Didn't Einstein say something about a young girl and a hot cinder? He said that very tongue-in-cheek. That quote, as near as I can remember it, is: "When you have a pretty...

Museum events.
December 1, 2002... EXHIBITIONS The Butterfly Conservatory: Tropical Butterflies Alive in Winter Through May 26, 2003 The butterflies are back! This popular exhibition includes more than 500 live, free-flying tropical butterflies in an enclosed...

Lots of foam, please. (Samplings).
December 1, 2002... The chocoholics among us won't be surprised to Learn that people were sipping decoctions of cacao a millennium earlier than archaeologists had previously thought. All too often when ancient ceramics are found, their well-meaning finders give...

Experiment of the month. (Samplings).
December 1, 2002... "Opportunistic" is a good description for animal behavior, whether the animals be birds or biologists. On Middleton Island in the Gulf of Alaska stands an abandoned U.S. Air Force radar tower. Years ago, high winds blew off its exterior siding,...

Shark sex. (Samplings).
December 1, 2002... Sharks do things differently from most other fishes, and sex is no exception. Marine biologists have known for some time about the peculiarities of shark reproductive anatomy and physiology: sharks have specialized copulatory organs, practice...

Hot plants. (Samplings).
December 1, 2002... If you've ever visited Yellowstone National Park, you can probably still picture the sulfurous Landscape: broad, crusty, white rock terraces with their patches of ocher and canary yellow; bubbling pools of gray mud; steaming basins of...

Surf and turf. (Samplings).
December 1, 2002... Maybe you can't tell a book by its cover, but it turns out you can sometimes tell what was once in an animal's stomach by analyzing its hair. Take the arctic fox, whose diet is a mix of the marine (seal carrion and seal pups) and the...

Abandoned in the garden. (Samplings).
December 1, 2002... Many orchids have flower parts that mimic the shape and scent of female wasps. Mate wasps, beguiled and bamboozled by the impersonators, land on the flowers, unwittingly pick up pollen, and carry it to the next floral mimic--a classic example...

Delusions of centrality: even astronomers have had a hard time accepting that humanity does not inhabit a special part of the universe. (Universe).
December 1, 2002... So much of the universe appears to be one way but is really another that I wonder, at times, whether there's an ongoing conspiracy designed to embarrass astrophysicists. Examples of such cosmic tomfoolery abound. In modern times it's...

Dry, dry again: to survive in its desert home, the tortoise of the American Southwest must tolerate immense swings in its body chemistry.
December 1, 2002... Life is tough in the desert. Temperatures can be blisteringly high or chillingly low, sometimes both in a single day. Rains are infrequent and often too fleeting or, paradoxically, too hard to be of much benefit to the organisms living there....

Dodging mass extinction: all around, species were dying off. But in this Devonian reef, life went on. Why?
December 1, 2002... Windjana Gorge, during northwestern Australia's dry winter, is a magical place. An inconspicuous cleft within steep red cliffs marks its entrance; the cliffs themselves rise abruptly from a wide, dry plain, dotted with ancient boab trees. But...

How does that grab you? Biologists are discovering that bacteria can cling to your cells much the way a "finger trap" grasps your finger. (Biomechanics).
December 1, 2002... Cranberry juice, and lots of it: that s all most people know about urinary tract infections. But I always find my thoughts drifting from juice to the troubling question of invasion. Some strains of Escherichia coli, the same bacterium that...

On golden pond: miners and beavers have created a lovely, quiet California wetland--through no fault of their own. (This Land).
December 1, 2002... In 1884 prospectors entered a tranquil valley in the northern Sierra Nevada mountains of California. A forest of lodgepole pines, set off by a cluster of picturesque lakes known as the Sardine Lakes, covered the moist, twenty-acre basin. From...

The unselfish genome: the case for cooperating genes.
December 1, 2002... Acquiring Genomes: A Theory of the Origins of Species by Lynn Margulis and Dorion Sagan (Basic Books, 2002; $28.00) Darwin's Blind Spot: Evolution Beyond Natural Selection by Frank Ryan (Houghton Mifflin, 2002; $25.00) Ever...

Climate watch. (nature.net).
December 1, 2002... Most people get their news about global warming second-hand, but for those who want to keep their own finger on the pulse of the planet, two Web sites merit special interest. One site shrewdly keeps tabs on the coldest regions of the...

For the coffee table. (Bookshelf).
December 1, 2002... There's never a shortage of large-format books to keep the dust off the furniture. Represented here are exceptional picture-book treatments of nature and some glimpses of paradise--both on Earth and above it. Birds, by Robert Bateman...

Universe by number: can cosmology be as easy as one, two, three? (Out There).
December 1, 2002... The cosmos is a cluttered place. Stars dot the night sky in every direction--hardly surprising, given the hundreds of billions of stars in our galaxy alone. If our own solar neighborhood is any guide, each star among those billions could host a...

The sky in December and January.
December 1, 2002... Mercury spends much of December in the evening sky, slowly moving away from the Sun. It arrives at its greatest eastern elongation on the 26th, 20 degrees from the Sun's glare. Despite that separation the view is a limited one, because the...

Letter from the American Museum of Natural History.
December 1, 2002... Dear Friends: Welcome to Einstein at the American Museum of Natural History. We are delighted to present this landmark exhibition, the most comprehensive ever on the life and theories of a man who was one of the greatest scientists of all...

Letter from the Skirball Cultural Center.
December 1, 2002... Dear Friends: The Skirball Cultural Center is honored to co-organize Einstein and to present the exhibition in Los Angeles from September 12, 2004, through May 29, 2005. The mission of the Skirball is to explore the vital connections...

Letter from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
December 1, 2002... Dear Visitor: The Hebrew University of Jerusalem is proud to be a partner, together with the American Museum of Natural History and the Skirball Cultural Center, in this unique exhibition, which gives the American public an opportunity to...

The exhibition.
December 1, 2002... Einstein examines the life and theories of the most famous scientist of the 20th century, and arguably, the most brilliant scientific mind of all time. The exhibition explores the legacy of Albert Einstein (1879-1955), not only as a scientific...

Interview with curator Michael M. Shara.
December 1, 2002... Q: WHAT CHALLENGES DO WE FACE IN PRESENTING EINSTEIN TO THE PUBLIC? The exhibition itself is really in two major parts. There certainly is Einstein's physics. We want to explain General Relativity, Special Relativity, the core of the great...

Great things are happening at the American Museum of Natural History.
December 1, 2002... SPECIAL EXHIBITIONS October 5, 2002-May 26, 2003 THE BUTTERFLY CONSERVATORY. TROPICAL BUTTERFLIES ALIVE IN WINTER A return engagement of this popular exhibition includes more than 500 live, free-flying tropical butterflies. ...

Become a member of the American Museum of Natural History.
December 1, 2002... Join today and get $10 off one new Family or higher-level Membership! Stop by any Membership desk to take advantage of this special offer. Not good for phone or online reservations. Cannot be combined with any other offer. Valid through...

And while you're here ...
December 1, 2002... SHOPPING THE MUSEUM SHOP (first and second floors) Merchandise from around the world that reflects the Museum's exhibitions on human cultures, the natural world, and the universe 77TH STREET SHOP (first floor) Holiday and...

General info.
December 1, 2002... HOURS Daily, 10:00 a.m.-5:45 p.m. The Rose Center remains open on Friday until 8:45 p.m. Closed Thanksgiving and Christmas ADMISSION Admission to Einstein is by timed entry only. Tickets are $17 for adults, $12.50 for...