Natural History articles from June 2008

Natural History archives from June 2008

Hot tubs.(THE NATURAL MOMENT)(hippopotamuses)
June 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATIONS OMITTED] THE NATURAL EXPLANATION Taking a bath inside the Ngorongoro Crater during Tanzania's hot dry season is far from a private affair. Quarters are close, particularly for resident hippopotamuses, which converge on a...

Butterfly effect.(nature.net)(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] SEVERAL YEARS AGO, my son and I found ourselves in a veritable swarm of medium-size, orange-and-black butterflies with white spots on their wing tips. They weren't flitting from flower to flower; they were fluttering...

Around our necks.(WORD EXCHANGE)(Letter to the editor)
June 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] In "Around Their Necks" [4/08], Tui De Roy and Mark Jones call attention to both the beauty and the plight of albatrosses. Effective albatross conservation requires managing resources while taking into account the...

Mixed greens, extra large.(SAMPLINGS)(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... In the dinosaurs' day, the plant kingdom was ruled by primitive greenery that biologists have presumed to be only marginally digestible, and thus a poor energy source for herbivores. How could such scanty fare support colossal vegetarian...

Wily coyotes.(SAMPLINGS)(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Coyotes in and around Yellowstone National Park are adjusting to life with new neighbors. Reintroduced wolves produce a steady supply of large carcasses--elk, deer, and such--but they won't hesitate to attack a...

Turn tail.(SAMPLINGS)(geckos)(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] For a long time, biologists thought a main function of geckos' tails was to store fat, but a new study gives that couch-potato image a makeover. In fact, the tail plays an active role in the gecko's amazing ability...

In the zone.(SAMPLINGS)(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Water and simple organic molecules, including some thought to be essential to the origin of life, have turned up in a disk of gas and dust whirling around the young star AA Tauri, 450 light-years from Earth. Similar...

Swimming the walk.(SAMPLINGS)(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... Predators hunting randomly spaced prey should not themselves move randomly. That's the advice of many biologists, anyhow, to foragers needing an efficient search strategy. Instead, they recommend the "L6vy walk," which involves alternating...

Time to split.(SAMPLINGS)(Sand dollars )(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Sand dollars are a beachcomber's bread and butter. Their abundance may stem, at least in part, from a curious ability of their larvae: they can split themselves into two in an act of asexual cloning. The larvae tend...

Stuck in the red.(SAMPLINGS)(pitcher plants )(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... The leaves of pitcher plants form deadly, watery traps for insects, which beef up the verdant carnivores' nutrient supply. The traps, or pitchers, often sport red streaks or entirely red exteriors that contrast sharply with background greenery...

Uprooted.(THE WARMING EARTH)(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... Forests in Vermont's Green Mountains transition abruptly from a heat-loving mix of sugar maple, American beech, and yellow birch on the lower slopes to a cold-adapted mix of red spruce, balsam fir, and paper birch higher up. A new study shows...

Carbon sootprint.(THE WARMING EARTH)(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... The burning of biomass, such as wood or dung, and of certain fossil fuels releases particulate black carbon, or soot. Until now, soot has been considered a minor player in most climate models, but a new analysis suggests it's actually the...

Chromosomagnon man: what's a chromosome or two among friends?(LIFE ZONE)
June 1, 2008... In 1921, the American zoologist Theophilus S. Painter reported that humans have forty-eight chromosomes. That was a big upwards revision: at the time, most people thought the correct number was twenty-four, and previous counts had been as low...

Sex and the single schistosome: once thought to pair for life, infective flatworms may lose their mates in battle.(Cover story)
June 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATIONS OMITTED] CALL ME NAIVE, BUT I WAS A LITTLE surprised that the trip to the ancient temple of the pharaohs in Luxor, Egypt, did not require a couple of days' ride into the desert on a camel. I had visions of heat and dust and...

Burmese motorcycle diaries: following the trail of an adventurous scientist to its--and his--end.(Joe Slowinski)
June 1, 2008... Like mystics and soldiers of fortune, field biologists are fond of exotic, far-flung places. It's partly scientific: the study of wildlife requires wilderness. Yet sometimes there's an irrational, almost addictive edge to the attachment. Joe...

What Bugged the Dinosaurs? Insects, Disease, and Death in the Cretaceous.(Book review)
June 1, 2008... What Bugged the Dinosaurs? Insects, Disease, and Death in the Cretaceous by George Poinar Jr. & Roberta Poinar Princeton University Press, 2008; $29.95 [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Since only a few scraps of fossilized dinosaur...

Traversa: A Solo Walk across Africa, from the Skeleton Coast to the Indian Ocean.(Book review)
June 1, 2008... Traversa A Solo Walk across Africa, from the Skeleton Coast to the Indian Ocean by Fran Sandham Duckworth Overlook, 2007; $25.00 [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Following, if a bit shakily, in the footsteps of Livingstone and...

The Earth on Show: Fossils and the Poetics of Popular Science, 1802-1856.(Book review)
June 1, 2008... The Earth on Show Fossils and the Politics of Popular Science, 1802-1856 by Ralph O'Connor The University of Chicago Press, 2007; $45.00 [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Scientists would like to believe that our understanding of...

Skylog.(moon phases and the tides)(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Swinging into position between the Sun and Earth, the Moon becomes new on June 3, at 3:23 P.M. eastern daylight time (EDT). Although the alignment is not within the necessary limits to grant us a solar eclipse, it...

June nights out.(Brief article)(Calendar)
June 1, 2008... 3 The Moon is new at 3:23 P.M. EDT. Expect unusually high and low tides for a few days (see story above). 7 Mars sits above and to the right of the crescent Moon. 8 A fat crescent Moon forms the apex of a long, narrow triangle that...

Good vibrations.(WORD EXCHANGE)(Letter to the editor)
June 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] In telling the story of the new optics of invisibility, Michio Kaku ["Invisibility," 4/08] uses James Clerk Maxwell's equations as a starting point. Maxwell developed these equations in response to Michael Faraday's...

Science in the summer.(At the Museum: American Museum of Natural History)
June 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] As summer bakes Manhattan, Museum curators head out of the city on field expeditions. Not that the climate is any less sultry in the Congo River Basin, where Melanie Stiassny recently found blind fish surfacing with...

Saturn: a new view.(At the Museum: American Museum of Natural History)
June 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] IT'S DIFFICULT TO OVERSTATE the clarity and quality of the more than 50 spectacular photographs in the exhibition Saturn: Images from the Cassini-Huygens Mission now on view in the American Museum of Natural...

Exhibitions.(At the Museum: American Museum of Natural History)
June 1, 2008... The Horse Through January 4, 2009 This trailblazing exhibition explores the origins of the horse family, extending back more than 50 million years; examines early interactions between horses and humans that led to horse domestication;...

Lectures science & society.(At the Museum: American Museum of Natural History)(Peace and Science in the Middle East)(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... Peace and Science in the Middle East Thursday, 6/12, 6:30 p.m. Uri ten Brink of the U.S. Geological Survey will discuss several multinational projects examining the geophysics of the Dead Sea valley--projects that can help promote...

From the field.(At the Museum: American Museum of Natural History)(The Haphazard Construction of the Human Mind )(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... The Haphazard Construction of the Human Mind Tuesday, June 24, 6:30 p.m. Psychologist Gary Marcus, NYU Infant Language Learning Center, examines memory, belief, decision-making, language, and happiness, and argues that evolution...

Workshop.(At the Museum: American Museum of Natural History)(Understanding your DNA)(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... Understanding your DNA Three Tuesdays, 6/17-7/1, 6:30-8:30 p.m. (Ages 18 and up) Written in our DNA is an unbroken record of our shared ancestry as human beings. In this hands-on workshop, participants sequence their own DNA...

Children and family programs.(At the Museum: American Museum of Natural History)(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... Identification day. Saturday, 6/7, 12:30-3:30 p.m. Bring your shells, rocks, insects, feathers, bones, and artifacts to our annual Identification Day! Museum scientists will attempt to identify your mysterious garage-sale finds, curios...

Hayden planetarium programs.(At the Museum: American Museum of Natural History)(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] TUESDAYS IN THE DOME Virtual Universe Recycling the Universe Tuesday, 6/3, 6:30 p.m. Celestial Highlights Summer Skies Tuesday, 6/24, 6:30 p.m. These programs are supported, in part,...

Lecture.(At the Museum: American Museum of Natural History)(Physics of the Impossible)(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... Physics of the Impossible Monday, 6/2, 7:30 p.m. Theoretical physicist Michio Kaku considers science-fiction technology that could or could not become real, based on our current understanding of the universe.

Hayden planetarium shows.(At the Museum: American Museum of Natural History)(Field Trip to the Moon and Cosmic Collisions)(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... Field Trip to the Moon Wednesdays, 10:30 a.m. (through June; resumes in September) Guided by a live presenter, children and adults can see a sunrise in space and orbit and land on the Moon. Supported by a grant from NASA's Marshall...

Imax movies.(At the Museum: American Museum of Natural History)(LeFrak Theater)(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... The Museum's LeFrak Theater, with its large-format screen and plush seating, offers a viewing experience like no other. For films and showtirnes, visit www.amnh.org or call 212-769-5100.

Late night dance party.(At the Museum: American Museum of Natural History)(One Step Beyond)(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... One Step Beyond Friday, 6/27, 9:00 p.m.-1:00 a.m. This monthly party in the Rose Center features the biggest names in techno, electronica, hip-hop, and indie rock. Cocktails keep the party going.

Scents & sensibilities.(ENDPAPER)
June 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] To find me twenty years ago, you might have looked under a Mexican blue oak in the mountains of southern Arizona. From there I would often watch javelinas wander among shin dagger agave in open stretches of juniper...