Natural History articles from May 2002

Natural History archives from May 2002

Transformations. (Up Front).
May 1, 2002... Mary, Mary, quite contrary, How does your garden grow? --Anonymous One of the wonderful things about the nature movies of the 1950s, such as Disney's The Vanishing Prairie and The Living Desert, was the pioneering use of time-lapse...

A home run. (Letters).(Letter to the Editor)
May 1, 2002... I've enjoyed every issue of Natural History since my grandfather first gave me a subscription over fifty years ago. This morning, I began casually skimming "Baseball's Reliquary" (3/02). About halfway through, I slammed the magazine down and...

Blue sky. (Letters).
May 1, 2002... In describing the origin of the blue light we see when looking at the sky on a clear day, Philip Ball, in "Seeing Red... and Yellow... and Green... and" (3/02), states that "rays from the sun are scattered by atmospheric dust." The blue...

ID vs. evolution. (Letters).(Letter to the Editor)
May 1, 2002... By providing an opportunity for Jonathan Wells, Michael J. Behe, and William A. Dembski to write about "intelligent design" (Special Report: "Intelligent Design?" 4/02), you gave them exactly what they desired: publicity in a mainstream...

A mammoth mystery: was accuracy sacrificed to romance in the Museum's mural of Font-de-Gaume? (At The Museum).
May 1, 2002... Charles R. Knight is best known for his large-scale paintings of dinosaurs and extinct mammals, some of which are on display in the American Museum of Natural History's fourth-floor Hall of Vertebrate Origins. Recently, the Museum unveiled a...

Museum events in May.
May 1, 2002... "BASEBALL AS AMERICA" Theater 5/5: "Tale of 2Cities: An American Joyride on Multiple Tracks." Playwright and actor Heather Woodbury's one-woman show of her "living novel" about Mexican Americans and the Brooklyn Dodgers. Linder Theater,...

Cretaceous mother. (Samplings).
May 1, 2002... For more than a hundred years, the Municipal Museum of Natural History in Trieste, Italy, has housed the fossil of a six-foot-long Carsosaurus marchesetti (a marine lizard from the Cretaceous) that clearly shows the teeth and bones of at least...

Double agent. (Samplings).
May 1, 2002... The spotted knapweed (Centaurea maculosa) is a European invader that, over the last hundred years, has spread throughout the pastures and rangeland of western North America, often out-competing native species. (It landed on the West Coast in...

This alien-looking creature is a newly described species of squid that lives near the seafloor at great depths. (Samplings).(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... This alien-looking creature is a newly described species of squid that lives near the seafloor at great depths. Crew members of submersibles have observed specimens eight times since 1988, in all major oceans, but they haven't captured any....

Fish in the fast lane. (Samplings).
May 1, 2002... Love can sweep you off your feet (or fins), but for one species of freshwater fish, being swept away is the last thing an amorous male would want. Rhinogobius is a small goby that lives in streams and rivers in Japan. During the...

Flared welcome. (Samplings).
May 1, 2002... Some flower shapes that are particularly good at forcing insect pollinators into contact with pollen have a downside: they also let in nectar thieves, such as ants that do not transfer pollen and may even munch on the flower's ovary. One...

Digestive move. (Samplings).
May 1, 2002... For a snake, there's no such thing as eating piecemeal: it gobbles its prey whole. But a complete carcass sitting in the snake's stomach may slow it down, and the prey may even start to decompose before being fully digested. So it would be...

The bite stuff: an old jaw provides clues to ancient diversity, ecology, and geography. (Findings).
May 1, 2002... In 1995 during a paleontology field season in Madagascar, a large island off the east coast of Africa, my good friend and fellow expedition member Cathy Forster unearthed part of a strange fossil jaw. Even at first glance, the shape of the...

On being baffled: stop the presses! To scientists, the universe is a source of endless puzzlement. (Universe).
May 1, 2002... Maybe it's the need to attract and keep readers. Maybe the public just likes to hear about those rare occasions when scientists are clueless. Is that why science reporters can't file an article about the universe without describing some of the...

The new black: what happens to science when facts meet fashion? (Celestial Events).
May 1, 2002... Forget about your parachute. What color is your universe? Turquoise, it turned out. Maybe you saw the picture of it on the front page of the New York Times, or read about it in one of the newspapers that picked up the Associated Press...

The sky in May.
May 1, 2002... A "celestial summit meeting." Belgian astronomer Jean Meeus has called the appearance of three planets within a circle 5 [degrees] or less in diameter a "planetary trio." In early May, just such a trio is readily visible low in the...

Desire under the figs: an Amazonian bird's unusual diet results in an even more unusual mating system. (Naturalist At Large).
May 1, 2002... Thump! It sounded as though something the size of a baseball had hit the ground about thirty feet away from me. I scanned the layer of dead leaves covering the rainforest floor but saw nothing. The group of white-winged trumpeters that I was...

Welcome to the Wonder ...: New Brunswick, Canada! New Brunswick, Canada has so many wonders waiting to be experienced and explored. From preserved parks to spectacular natural sites, welcome to the wonder of New Brunswick!
May 1, 2002... One of the Marine Wonders of the World New Brunswick's Bay of Fundy is one of the Marine Wonders of the World. Home to the world's highest tides, it offers some of the best whale-watching on Canada's east coast. Walk on the ocean floor at...

New York State: the Empire State offers art and history along its highways and byways. (special advertising section).
May 1, 2002... A favorite vacation spot in New York State (800-call-nys; www.iloveny.com) is the Hudson Valley Region, just a short drive from New York City. The Hudson, one of the first rivers that explorers encountered in the New Word, is famous for its...

Quebec City. (special advertising section).
May 1, 2002... Although it's only 438 miles north of New York City, and less than 400 miles from Boston, Quebec City (418) 522-3511; www.quebecregion.com) is known for its European charm. Founded in 1608 by Samuel de Champlain, Quebec is a lively city of...

Colonial Williamsburg: America's favorite restored village is celebrating its seventy-fifth anniversary. (special advertising section).(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... Take a step back in time when you visit Colonial Williamsburg (800-history; www.history.org). Located midway between Richmond and Norfolk, Virginia (take I-63 to exit 238), this historic village has changed little from the time of our founding...

Arizona. (special advertising section).(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... In the Grand Canyon State (602-230-733; www.arizonaguide.com), twenty-two scenic byways, parkways, and historic and scenic roads take visitors to a variety of natural and cultural sites off the beaten track. In northern Arizona, two scenic...

Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge. (special advertising section).(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... Located on the north end of Hatteras Island in the Outer Banks of North Carolina, the Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge is a wonderful destination to witness the fall and spring bird migrations. During the sixth annual Wigs Over Water...

Swift: binoculars. (special advertising section).(Advertising)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... For anyone who wants to get the most out of bird watching, perhaps while exploring the Outer Banks at the Wings Over Water Festival, a good field guide and fine, high-quality binoculars are "must have" items. Swift Instruments...

Little St. Simons Island. (special advertising section).(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... Just off the Georgia coast, Little St. Simons Island (888-733-5774; www.littlestsimonsisland.com) is halfway between Savannah, Georgia, and Jacksonville, Florida. Leave your car behind and be prepared to fall under St. Simon's spell. Late...

The making of a blossom: a flower's evolutionary past may be read in the genes that influence its development.
May 1, 2002... Bashford Dean had two passions in life. One was studying the development and evolution of fishes, which led to his becoming a professor at Columbia University in 1891 and a curator at the American Museum of Natural History in 1903. The other...

An American fantasy: myths about rural life are as old as the Greek eclogues and as modern as the L.L. Bean catalog. Nineteenth-century America gave us the Age of Homespun, an ideological haven from the more complicated realities of the country's history.
May 1, 2002... The Age of Homespun wasn't born in Litchfield, Connecticut, but it was christened there on August 14, 1851, the second day of the county centennial. Like much of rural New England, Litchfield County had been in decline for almost a generation,...

Little loggers make a big difference: the tastes of two small rodents--the meadow vole and the white-footed mouse--can determine what trees grow in a forest.
May 1, 2002... A hundred years ago in the northeastern United States, farms covered one-half to three-quarters of what is today forested land. But working the thin, rocky soils of the Northeast was a marginal existence, and after the opening of the Erie Canal...

Parallel brides: for some families in Turkey, matchmaking is an intricate dance.
May 1, 2002... It is a bright Sunday in the tiny Arab village of Lower Arbit in southeastern Turkey. Cheerful melodies issue from a cassette player powered by a tractor battery. I watch as Nuri and Turkan, brother and sister, join the snaking line of the...

Sands of time: a small prairie that formed at the end of the Ice Age is an Iowa gem. (This Land).
May 1, 2002... I have taught several spring and autumn classes in the heart of Iowa, where the plants we studied inhabited wetlands, uplands, woods, and prairies, but when I first stepped onto the upper end of Marietta Sand Prairie, I knew I was in a unique...

Fast food joints: special hinges in their lower jaw enable some skinny little snakes to eat at an astonishing speed. (Biomechanics).(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... The eating habits of snakes have jump-started many a cocktail conversation among my (admittedly peculiar) circle of friends, and we are always fascinated by the extremes: the python that swallowed a deer, the bull snake that swallowed several...

Wanted: secluded, shady nest, streamside view; for a small forest bird, real estate may boost sex appeal. (In The Field).(polygynous birds)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... I followed quickly along the stream bank as the lanky figure ahead of me skillfully negotiated the undergrowth and low branches with the awkward tools of his trade. Carrying long bamboo poles over his right shoulder, with bundled mist nets...

Sea highs, sea lows: despite humanity's depredations, two biologists remain hopeful about the fate of the world's oceans.('Listening to Whales: What the Orcas Have Taught Us' and 'Eye of the Albatross: Visions of Hope and Survival')
May 1, 2002... Listening to Whales: What the Orcas Have Taught Us, by Alexandra Morton (Ballantine Books, 2002; $26.95) Eye of the Albatross: Visions of Hope and Survival, by Carl Safina (Henry Holt, 2002; $27.50) As a naturalist, I believe that what...

Making the Moon. (nature.net).(web sites that discuss moon observations)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... The leading explanation for the Moon's origin is younger than the theory of plate tectonics. Often called the "giant impact theory," it did not receive much attention from scientists until the mid-1980s. Even now, I wonder how many people know...

Bookshelf.(nine books about nature subjects)(Brief Review)
May 1, 2002... The Trouser People: Colonial Shadows in Modern-Day Burma, by Andrew Marshall (Counterpoint/Perseus, 2002; $26) Retracing the expeditions of a Victorian adventurer in the uncharted Burmese highland, Marshall skillfully links past and present...

Bulldozer. (The Natural Moment).(South African bullfrogs)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... Each December and January, rainstorms drench the parched South African landscape and summon African bullfrogs (Pyxicephalus adspersus) from their subterranean lairs. Driven underground to protect their moist skin during the ten-month-long dry...

Disassembly required. (Endpaper).(examination of a bird nest)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... Every time I hold the nest of a long-tailed tit (Aegithalos caudatus) in my hands, I am struck by its neat dome shape, the tidy little entrance hole near the top, and the soft, flexible fabric of which it is made. A few years ago, no longer...