Natural History articles from October 2006

Natural History archives from October 2006

Blast off!(THE NATURAL MOMENT)
October 1, 2006... Looking poised to rocket into space, the gelatinous siphonophore pictured here pumps its way through the deep ocean. And, all too much like an earthly spacecraft, if you bring this fragile machine to the surface too hastily, you'll risk...

Snakes from the sea?(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
October 1, 2006... Laurie J. Vitt and Eric R. Pianka's article on the evolution of lizards ["The Scaly Ones," 7/06-8/06] is highly readable, but unfortunately, it largely ignores the squamate paleontological record. For example, the mosasaurs (from five to...

High life cornucopia.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
October 1, 2006... Kevin Krajick ["Living the High Life," 9/06] illustrates perfectly the unique diversity of species that await discovery. The highest reaches of the Andes seem devoid of life, yet such extreme environments harbor ecosystems that are inimitable....

The other Kinsey.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
October 1, 2006... Peter Del Tredici ["The Other Kinsey Report," 7/06-8/06] solves the mystery of why Alfred C. Kinsey's book Edible Wild Plants of Eastern North America was not published until long after he wrote it. Del Tredici also sorts out the contributions...

Out on a limb.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
October 1, 2006... Jennifer A. Clack's article "From Fins to Limbs" [7/06-8/06] reminds me of something I have long considered a basic truth of evolution, but have never seen in print. A transitional form is less fit (in the Malthusian-Darwinian sense) than the...

Feast or famine.(SAMPLINGS)(obesity and type 2 diabetes genotype)(Brief article)
October 1, 2006... The prevalence of obesity and Type 2 diabetes in certain populations is often attributed to a "thrifty" genotype, selected for by frequent famines throughout those populations' prehistory. People who express the thrifty genotype are presumably...

My, what keen eyes you had!(SAMPLINGS)(tyrannosaurus rex)(Brief article)
October 1, 2006... Every schoolkid knows that Tyrannosaurus rex was really scary. Now a new study adds some frightening detail in answer to the question, How scary? Kent A. Stevens, a computer scientist at the University of Oregon in Eugene analyzed reconstructed...

Before appellation controllee.(SAMPLINGS)(Brief article)
October 1, 2006... The wild Eurasian grape, Vitis vinifera sylvestris, was first domesticated for winemaking in Transcaucasia, the region between the Black Sea and the Caspian, perhaps as long as 8,000 years ago. Early viticulturists selected for large, sweet...

Buzzing off.(SAMPLINGS)(bee species in Europe)(Brief article)
October 1, 2006... There's less buzz in the fields of Europe these days. A new study confirms what many observers have suspected: that the number of bee species in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands has declined markedly in recent decades. Strikingly, so have...

Go west, young primate.(SAMPLINGS)(Brief article)
October 1, 2006... The earliest known primate fossils occur in 55-million-year-old geological deposits ranging across Asia, Europe, and North America. That almost simultaneous appearance has long posed a riddle to paleontologists: where did primates originate,...

Jungle smarts.(SAMPLINGS)(predators behavior)(Brief article)
October 1, 2006... Survival in the jungle takes more than dumb luck. A recent study of predators and their prey shows that relatively small-brained species are more likely to become a predator's meal than bigger-brained ones. Susanne Shultz and Robin I. M....

Lucky break.(SAMPLINGS)(prehistoric fossils of amphibians)(Brief article)
October 1, 2006... A trace of life persists in prehistoric fossils. Amphibian bone marrow, discovered in 10-million-year-old fossils of frogs and salamanders from a sulfurous lake in Spain, is so exquisitely preserved that its red and yellow layers of tissue are...

A rash of consequences.(SAMPLINGS)(poison ivy)(Brief article)
October 1, 2006... As if there weren't enough ominous consequences of global warming, here's a little bitty consequence that's just plain nasty: bigger, badder poison ivy. Already the irksome vine is responsible for more than 350,000 cases of dermatitis annually...

Uphill battle.(SAMPLINGS)(giraffe's heart and physiology)(Brief article)
October 1, 2006... Rise too quickly from a prone position, and you might see stars, the twinkling signs of your heart's struggle to send blood up to your suddenly elevated brain. So pity the heart of the giraffe. Its job is to push blood up the carotid artery to...

As time goes by: comparing, the human experience of time with the fundamental tempos of nature yields a startling, new outlook on our place in the universe.(PERSPECTIVES)
October 1, 2006... A few years ago a geologist friend at M.I.T. gave me a small chunk of gneiss from Canada s Northwest Territories. It rests now, backlit by the winter sun, on the windowsill behind my desk. A dull, finegrained, gray-and-white rock, flecked with...

Nice threads: Orb weaver spiders can draw on a wide selection of silks that span a huge range of stretchiness and strength.(BIOMECHANICS)
October 1, 2006... All species of spider--about 40,000 at last count--extrude silk from modified limbs, called spinnerets, on their abdomens. Many species, including the orb weavers, produce a whopping seven different kinds of silk. Two are gooey, but the other...

Blues' revival: can a change in diet--and a little laboratory assistance--help a Florida butterfly escape extinction?(NATURALISTS AT LARGE)
October 1, 2006... Usually crowded with sun-loving tourists, the sandy beaches of the Florida Keys are vacant in the darkening afternoon sky. Palm fronds crackle as the wind picks up. Bahia Honda State Park, 524 acres of limestone and beach in the lower Florida...

Sociable killers: new studies of the white shark (aka great white) show that its social life and hunting strategies are surprisingly complex.(Cover story)
October 1, 2006... It's twenty past seven on a winter morning. Our research vessel drifts off Seal Island, South Africa. A lone Cape fur seal pup porpoises through the gently rolling swells toward the island. Suddenly, a ton of white shark launches from the water...

Broken pieces of yesterday's life: traces of lifestyles abandoned millions of years ago are still decipherable in "fossil genes" retained in modern DNA.
October 1, 2006... A magnificent early Christmas present arrived one morning in December 1938, when Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer received a message: the Nerine, a local trawler, might have some fish for her collection. Courtenay-Latimer, the first full-time curator...

Life and death in a pitcher: carnivorous plants that seem to employ a simple dunk-and-drown tactic for capturing prey turn out to have more up their leaves.
October 1, 2006... In the summer of 1854 a young Welsh naturalist on a collecting expedition to southeast Asia stopped for a rest on the rocky slopes of Mount Ophir, in what is now peninsular Malaysia. The Welshman and his guides had been assured that water would...

Tales of the Rose Tree: Ravishing Rhododendrons and Their Travels around the World.(Book review)
October 1, 2006... Tales of the Rose Tree: Ravishing Rhododendrons and Their Travels Around the World by Jane Brown David R. Godine; $35.00 To Jane Brown, who writes with florid enthusiasm, the world looks best through rhododendron-colored glasses. Brown's...

Darwinism and Its Discontents.(Book review)
October 1, 2006... Darwinism and Its Discontents by Michael Ruse Cambridge University Press; $30.00 Readers of this magazine scarcely need to be persuaded of the power of Charles Darwin's theory of evolution. But few, I dare say, have thought deeply about...

The Singing Neanderthals: The Origins of Music, Language, Mind, and Body.(Book review)
October 1, 2006... The Singing Neanderthals: The Origins of Music, Language, Mind, and Body by Steven Mithen Harvard University Press; $25.95 Among the most dicey academic inquiries are the ones that deal with the origin of human consciousness. It is hard...

Ripping Earth.(nature.net)(earthquake data centers)
October 1, 2006... Early on the morning of April 18, 1906, a section of the San Andreas Fault that was "locked," or stuck in place by friction, suddenly gave way. The break began under the Pacific Ocean, two miles west of San Francisco, and raced outward in...

My Three Suns: how many planets survive in multiple-star systems?(OUT THERE)
October 1, 2006... Titles of scientific research articles are usually drier and more enigmatic than Martian dust. But a recent paper in the Astrophysical Journal--"Two Suns in the Sky"--bucks the trend with the blunt force of a summer movie title. Has a new star...

The sky in October.
October 1, 2006... Mercury begins the month shining, with an orange hue, at magnitude -0.1, in the constellation Bootes, the herdsman. Look for the planet low in the west-southwest about thirty minutes after sunset during the first half of October. To see it,...

AMNH expeditions.(At the Museum: American Museum of Natural History)
October 1, 2006... Imagine exploring parts of the Galapagos not open to other tourists with Niles Eldredge, curator of the Museum's acclaimed Darwin exhibition. Or going behind the scenes of the U.S. and Soviet space programs with astrophysicist Neff deGrasse...

The Buttery Conservatory: Tropical Butterflies Alive in Winter: opens October 7, 2006.(At the Museum: American Museum of Natural History)
October 1, 2006... Around the world, butterflies enchant children and charm adults. The ever-popular Butte(fly Conservatory, now opening for its ninth year, immerses visitors in a tropical environment where butterflies from South and Central America, Africa, and...

Ian Felstead: Assistant Director, Business and Operations, AMNH Expeditions.(PEOPLE AT THE AMNH)(Brief article)
October 1, 2006... After graduating from London University with a degree in biology, lan Felstead took a summer job helping British tourists find their way around in Tuscany, Italy. He found Tuscany so stunning that this seemingly mundane task ignited a lifelong...

A night at the museum: New! family sleep-overs.
October 1, 2006... Friday, October 20 Friday, November 18 Break out your sleeping bags and experience the American Museum of Natural History like never before--roaming the halls after the doors close! On Friday, October 20, and Friday, November 18, the...

Upcoming special exhibition: Gold.
October 1, 2006... Opens November 18, 2006 Gold, a dazzling new exhibition, tells the fascinating story of this precious metal and symbol of wealth, beauty, and power. Gorgeous and glittering, it features extraordinary geological specimens and cultural...

Museum events.(Calendar)
October 1, 2006... EXHIBITIONS The Butterfly Conservatory Opens October 7, 2006 See page 76. Lizards & Snakes: Alive! Through January 7, 2007 Live lizards and snakes are the center of attention in this engaging exhibition that explores these creatures'...

Winning Miss Muffet's heart.(ENDPAPER)(tarantulas)
October 1, 2006... Normal people don t like spiders. All those scrabbly and asynchronous little legs set off red alerts in the primitive parts of our brains, anxiety attacks egged on by awful ancestral memories from the early age of mammals. Little Miss Muffet,...