Natural History articles from February 2005

Natural History archives from February 2005

Undersea Valentine.(THE NATURAL MOMENT)(Polychaetes)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2005... Sometimes nature bears an uncanny resemblance to a cultural icon--the Roman alphabet displayed on an array of butterfly wings, for instance. Photographer Chris Newbert was leading a dive safari in the Solomon Islands of the South Pacific when a...

Unintended consequences.(UP FRONT)
February 1, 2005... There are also unknown unknowns.--DONALD RUMSFELD The secretary of defense got that one right. He might have added that what you don t know you don't know can surely hurt you. Shea Penland s article, Taming the River to Let In the Sea"...

Doctor Dolittle's dilemma.(LETTERS)(Letter to the Editor)
February 1, 2005... Stephen R. Anderson's thesis ("A Telling Difference," 11/04) that syntax is unique to human communication is undermined by his lack of knowledge of critical distinctions between the grammars of spoken English and American Sign Language (ASL)....

Look up!(LETTERS)(Letter to the Editor)
February 1, 2005... I greatly enjoyed Neil deGrasse Tyson's delightful article, "Ringside Seat" (10/04), which mentions my work on the Supernova Early Warning System (SNEWS) project. I have just two trivial corrections: first, I am now at Duke University, not at...

Preflight meals.(SAMPLINGS)(diet of birds)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2005... As migration day approaches, birds build up their energy reserves. But fattening up means putting on weight--not an ideal state for animals that need to stay aloft for hours or days at a time. To compensate, internal organs such as the gizzard,...

An earthy bouquet.(SAMPLINGS)(Wageningen University )(Brief Article)
February 1, 2005... Whether you call them aaloo bhaja, chips, french fries, patat, patatas fritas, pommes frites, or just plain fries, whether you douse them in cheese, gravy, ketchup, mayonnaise, vinegar, or just plain salt, most likely you find them hard to...

Fearful symmetry.(SAMPLINGS)(DNA or RNA viruses)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2005... To anyone in bed with a bad cold, the knowledge that the rhinovirus embodies a remarkable geometry is probably of little comfort. To physicists, however, it's of great interest. Poised in the twilight zone between the living and the...

The quartermaster's challenge.(SAMPLINGS)(Roman granaries)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2005... Feeding the troops was just as important to the armies of ancient Rome as it is to the modern armies in Iraq. Grain, grain, and more grain was the basic diet, according to the second century B.C. historian Polybius. Each month, a Roman...

Why we count by tens.(SAMPLINGS)(fossil tracks)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2005... Digging for fossils on Nova Scotia's Bay of Fundy can be unnerving. Twice a day the highest tides in the world sweep up the beach, threatening to pin unwary visitors at the foot of a bluff. But the rewards of digging there are worth the risk....

May I borrow your genome?(SAMPLINGS)(sex life of the edible frog)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2005... By any standard, the sex life of the edible frog, Rana esculenta, is a strange affair. Common in Europe, the frog is a hybrid of R. lessonae and R. ridibunda. Put a male and female R. esculenta together, though, and their offspring rarely...

Meltdown.(SAMPLINGS)(ice melts due to warming climate)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2005... From the Himalaya to Mount Kilimanjaro to Patagonia, the warming climate is assailing the world's 160,000 or so glaciers. Monitoring and measuring all the glaciers directly would be impossible, and so earth scientists have turned to satellite...

A fine romance.(SAMPLINGS)(gobies)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2005... A juvenile goby prowls the corals of Australia's Great Barrier Reef. The solitary young fish is searching for a sexual partner, though the actual sex of the potential partner is not a factor: anygoby will do. The juvenile's gonads have no true...

Speed limit: in Einstein's universe, time and distance may stretch like rubber, but the speed of light remains immutable.(UNIVERSE)(Albert Einstein)
February 1, 2005... Other than the space shuttle and Superman, not much else in life travels faster than a speeding bullet. But nothing moves faster than the speed of light in a vacuum. Nothing. But as fast as light moves, its speed is decidedly not infinite....

A simple heart: its shape, in zebra fish, goes with the (blood) flow.(BIOMECHANICS)
February 1, 2005... Blood is amazingly delicate and unstable. Essentially a suspension of cells and proteins in water, blood forms clots or clumps in response to any harsh mechanical treatment. That property keeps blood from pouring out uncontrollably after a...

Northern exposure: can the planet-encircling boreal forest survive global warming and resource exploitation?
February 1, 2005... It's a clear autumn morning in northern Saskatchewan, and I am knee-deep in a peat bog. An invigorating breeze sets lemon-gold aspen leaves quivering in the surrounding hills, while above me, steeple-topped spruce trees sway in unison like a...

Reader service.(Advertisement)
February 1, 2005... For free information from the advertisers listed below, circle the corresponding numbers on the attached postage-paid card. Mail card, fax it to 856-380-4101, or visit us at www.naturalhistorymag.com. If the card is missing, mail your request...

Taming the River to let in the sea: Southern Louisiana is sinking into the Gulf of Mexico. The surprising culprit is overambitious flood control.
February 1, 2005... If you live in Louisiana and don't know how to swim, now might be a good time to learn. The state is rapidly disappearing into the Gulf of Mexico. As a result of hundreds of years of natural-resource exploitation and modifications to the flow...

Can dogs think? Maybe yes, and maybe no. What dogs do quite well, though, is make people think that dogs can think.(How Dogs Think: Understanding the Canine Mind)(If Dogs Could Talk: Exploring the Canine Mind )(Book Review)
February 1, 2005... How Dogs Think: Understanding the Canine Mind by Stanley Coren Free Press, 2004; $26.00 If Dogs Could Talk: Exploring the Canine Mind by Vilmos Csanyi North Point Press, 2005; $25.00 Where is the dog owner who hasn't wondered just what...

A Cow's Life: The Surprising History of Cattle and How the Black Angus Came to Be Home on the Range.(Book Review)
February 1, 2005... A Cow's Life: The Surprising History of Cattle and How the Black Angus Came to Be Home on the Range by M.R. Montgomery Walker & Company, 2004; $25.00 Only a vanishingly small fraction of the U.S. population lives within earshot of a moo...

Professional Savages: Captive Lives and Western Spectacle.(Book Review)
February 1, 2005... Professional Savages: Captive Lives and Western Spectacle by Roslyn Poignant Yale University Press, 2004; $30.00 In 1883 ET. Barnum's traveling circus advertised an Ethnological Congress of Strange Savages, so that white urbanites in the...

The Remarkable Life of William Beebe: Explorer and Naturalist.(Book Review)
February 1, 2005... The Remarkable Life of William Beebe: Explorer and Naturalist by Carol Grant Gould Island Press, 2004; $30.00 Who has not heard of William Beebe (1877-1962), one of the greatest natural historians of the twentieth century? In a recent...

Howls and growls.(nature.net)(Origin of Species)(Book Review)
February 1, 2005... In the first chapter of his Origin of Species, Charles Darwin argued that if you wanted tangible evidence for evolution, you need look no further than the family pet. "Artificial selection" among domesticated animals, he noted, had resulted in...

Clock or chaos? Planets orbiting distant stars suggest that the stability of our own solar system may be tenuous.(OUT THERE)
February 1, 2005... For many years people thought it was impossible to run a mile in less than four minutes. Then on May 6, 1954, on a windy track in Oxford, England, Roger Bannister ran the mile in 3 minutes, 59.4 seconds. Within a few years, runners were...

The sky in February.
February 1, 2005... Mercury cannot be seen during most of February because it is on the other side of the Sun relative to Earth: the innermost planet reaches superior conjunction on the 14th. By late in the month Mercury becomes visible low above the western...

The museum's deep freeze.(At the Museum: American Museum of Natural History)(Ambrose Monell Collection for Molecular and Microbial Research)
February 1, 2005... Freezing-cold white gas burps from the caps of space-age cryogenic storage vats in the basement of the American Museum of Natural History every time a technician inserts another carefully contained snip of DNA. The vats are part of the...

Museum President Ellen V. Futter with Constantine and Trustee Anne Sidamon-Eristoff at the annual Museum Ball on Wednesday, November 17, 2004.(At the Museum: American Museum of Natural History)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2005... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Caption: Museum President Ellen V. Futter with Constantine and Trustee Anne Sidamon-Eristoff at the annual Museum Ball on Wednesday, November 17, 2004. A cocktail hour in the Theodore Roosevelt Rotunda was followed...

Welcome to the Genome: a user's guide to the genetic past, present, and future.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
February 1, 2005... Welcome to the Genome: A User's Guide to the Genetic Past, Present, and Future By Rob DeSalle and Michael Yudell Welcome to the Genome, published by Wiley in association with the American Museum of Natural History, is a reader-friendly...

The Museum's 11th annual Family Party, held on Wednesday, October 20, 2004, drew more than 1,600 children and parents.(At the Museum: American Museum of Natural History)
February 1, 2005... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Caption: The Museum's 11th annual Family Party, held on Wednesday, October 20, 2004, drew more than 1,600 children and parents. Families dined under the famous blue whale and engaged in entertaining and educational...

In celebration of the opening of the Museum's landmark exhibition Totems to Turquoise: Native North American Jewelry Arts of the Northwest and Southwest, on view through July 10, 2005, representatives of Native American communities offered blessings and performed ceremonial songs and dances.(At the Museum: American Museum of Natural History)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2005... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Caption: In celebration of the opening of the Museum's landmark exhibition Totems to Turquoise: Native North American Jewelry Arts of the Northwest and Southwest, on view through July 10, 2005, representatives of...

Museum events: American Museum of Natural History.(Calendar)
February 1, 2005... EXHIBITIONS Totems to Turquoise: Native North American Jewelry Arts of the Northwest and Southwest Through July 10, 2005 This groundbreaking exhibition celebrates the beauty, power, and symbolism of the magnificent tradition of...