Natural History articles from February 2001

Natural History archives from February 2001

Collective Memory.(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... We are all historians, archivists, curators. We paste family photographs into albums or cram them into boxes along with school yearbooks and letters from old friends. We hold on to material objects, however plain, that embody private memories....

LETTERS.(Letter to the Editor)
February 1, 2001... Daddy Longlegs I was delighted by "Touchy Harvestmen" (10/00), by Rogelio Macias-Ordonez. I will be able to use my newfound knowledge of how the daddy longlegs feels its way through life in my own work as a naturalist. It will help city...

A Tale of Two Reputations.(scientific contributions of Charles Darwin and Sigmund Freud)
February 1, 2001... Why we revere Darwin and give Freud a hard time We scientists have fantasies of being uniquely qualified to make great discoveries. Alas, reality is cruel: most of us are replaceable. For the vast majority of scientific contributions, if...

Cactus Country.(flora and fauna of Agua Caliente Canyon, Arizona)(Column)
February 1, 2001... An Arizona canyon provides a taste of desert and a glimpse of uplands. Rising above the Sonoran Desert, the Santa Rita Mountains extend north to south, falling roughly midway between Tucson, Arizona, and Nogales, Mexico. The highest peaks,...

Center Stage.(changes in our conception of the solar system throughout history)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... Repositioning the Sun at the hub of our celestial neighborhood was only the first step. CELESTIAL EVENTS It almost goes without saying that today we wouldn't think of the solar system as "solar" if there had been no Copernicus to put...

THE SKY IN FEBRUARY.(astronomical events)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... Mercury reaches inferior conjunction on February 13. The planet comes back into view during the last week of the month, appearing low in the east-southeast before dawn. Venus hangs in the western sky this month as darkness falls. Climbing...

IN SUM.(brief science notes)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... MONKEYING WITH MILLIPEDES Twenty years, ago, ecologist John Robinson, of the Wildlife Conservation Society, observed puzzling behavior in a group of wedge-capped capuchin monkeys (Cebus olivaceus) in central Venezuela. Upon finding a...

Winter Guests.(wintering of wild animals within log cabin)
February 1, 2001... A biologist recounts how a peaceful retreat became a cold-weather zoo. IN THE FIELD Even before I finished building the cabin, I could see that it had potential. Bubo, my tame great horned owl, perched on one of the rafters rather...

Nightlife of Social Caterpillars.
February 1, 2001... For cold-adapted larvae on the peaks of the Sierra Madre, the action begins after dark. I began to suspect there might be trouble ahead when we had driven for many miles without seeing any cars in the oncoming lane. We had gotten a late...

Robbing the Archaeological Cradle.(antiquity thefts and destruction of archaeological sites in Iraq)
February 1, 2001... In the aftermath of the Gulf War, Iraq's ancient heritage has landed on the endangered list. Virtually all of Iraq is an archaeological site, so the 1990-91 Gulf War inevitably took a toll on the remains of ancient settlements, some well...

Serpentine Cross-Dressers.(behaviour of Manitoban garter snake)
February 1, 2001... Some male Manitoban garter snakes wear the alluring scent of females. Garter snakes may be the most common snakes in North America, but the subspecies known as the red-sided garter snake provides an uncommon annual spectacle. During the...

A Man and His Menagerie.(management of nineteenth-century zoological park by Frederic Cuvier)
February 1, 2001... Capistrate a longue queue. "The menageries that have existed up to the present have always been regarded as institutions of extravagance rather than institutions of utility." So wrote Frederic Cuvier in 1804, introducing his guidebook to...

A Conversation With Alexander F. Skutch.(naturalist)(Interview)
February 1, 2001... A naturalist who has revealed the private lives of Neotropical birds For almost three-quarters of a century, naturalist Alexander F. Skutch has studied the wildlife of Central America, particularly its birds. Of his eighteen books, the...

Nisa: The Life and Words of a !Kung Woman.(Review)
February 1, 2001... Nisa: The Life and Words of a !Kung Woman, by Marjorie Shostak (Harvard University Press, reprint, 2000; $16.95) When Marjorie Shostak died in 1996, anthropology lost two compelling voices--Shostak, a keen observer and passionate writer,...

Return to Nisa.(Review)
February 1, 2001... Return to Nisa, by Marjorie Shostak (Harvard University Press, 2000; $24.95) When Marjorie Shostak died in 1996, anthropology lost two compelling voices--Shostak, a keen observer and passionate writer, and Nisa, whose words and personality...

The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Hunters and Gatherers.(Review)
February 1, 2001... The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Hunters and Gatherers, edited by Richard B. Lee and Richard Daly (Cambridge University Press, 1999; $125) When Marjorie Shostak died in 1996, anthropology lost two compelling voices--Shostak, a keen observer...

Glowing Dinos.(Web site on bioluminescence)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... Organisms that produce their own light are predominantly a marine phenomenon. Terrestrial bioluminescence is a rarity limited to a few insects (such as fireflies) and to certain earthworms and fungi. The reason for this disparity is simple,...

BOOKSHELF.(available science reading material)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... Nature Out of Place: Biological Invasions in the Global Age, by Jason Van Driesche and Roy Van Driesche (Island Press, 2000; $29.95) Tinkering With Eden: A Natural History of Exotics in America, by Kim Todd (W. W. Norton, 2001; $27.95) ...

The Beginning of Science.(perception of knowledge in scientific research)
February 1, 2001... Reports that physicists are nearing the final frontier of knowledge have been greatly exaggerated. The success of known physical laws at explaining the world around us has consistently bred some confident and even cocky attitudes toward...

Sea Bear.(polar bear)(Brief Article)(Illustration)
February 1, 2001... Polar bears are seagoing hunters that roam vast areas of the Arctic, pursuing a movable feast of seals, narwhals, beluga whales, and walruses. Individuals may range over 116,000 square miles. As the pack ice breaks up during the summer months,...

Insect From the Underground.(London, England Underground home to different species of mosquitos)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... In The Time Machine, published in 1895, H. G. Wells envisions a human race divided. Aboveground, in a city of daylight, live the Eloi, while the bloodthirsty Morlocks toil in tunnels far below the ground. A century later, two real-life British...