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FE ATU R ES COVER STORY 18 SEEING CORALS WITH THE EYE OF REASON A rediscovered painting celebrates

Charles Darwin's view of life. BY RICHARD MILNER 22 A BRIEF HISTORY OF REEF SCIENCE BY JENNIFER A. LANE

24 FLOWERS HAVE NO NAMES

r/?e revival of Hebrew as a living language after 2,000 years was no miracle. BY BENJAMIN HARSHAV

DEPARTMENTS l"^ ^x;^

2 THE NATURAL MOMENT >. V 'v -S V^ S •>*>. (JJt'^ 30 REVIEW S -v V . - Beetle Juice ^ --. •s -^ '>>*fiiifr'^'Hi Could an Ant Colony Read This Book? k^^p-' jP\''^*"j ^. . R. Photograph by Rick Lieder JRnB.-^ , ^ Robert Dunn ' ,-/ -%**^S^ ., ' >, / --.c" '"w^ »' - f - -. , 1 'v»W< -. -- 6 WORD EXCHANGE ^ 1 : N -^ "raftir .« 36 BOOKSHELF *' f ~, -*i"% » ^^SsLk^v- > - V s . ^^ Jif^Sfe"'^ ' Laurence A. Marschall 6 nature.net 1" -^jaafe.^: Superorganisms 38 THIS LAND Robert Anderson Rocket Land 10 SAMPLINGS Robert H. Mohlenbrock News from Nature 42 SKYLOG Joe Rao 16 NATURALIST AT LARGE Learning Lizards 44 AT THE MUSEUM Arnold B. Grobman 48 ENDPAPER Birthday Game Brendan Emmett Quigley

ON THE cover: Aerisl view of Kayangel Atoll In Micronesia Image by B. Tanaka / Gettyimages THE NATURAL MOMENT BEETLE JUICE

Photographs by Rick Lieder

W^ February 2009 natural history "* See precediiii; two pdges

THE NATURAL EXPLANATION BY ERIN ESPELIE

in unison by the thou- sands. North and South American fireflies must be slightly more surrep- titious, because of a vo- racious genus of preda- tory firefly. Photuris females have garnered

Ht>iKUirii.s the moniker "femmes fatales" because they Honduras's premier ecolodge offers lure in foreign males, pristine rainforests for wildlife Photiiius—the fireflies watching, adventure, and exploring, pictured here. Each cascading rivers for relaxing or Before fireflies took up "flash-danc- firefly species tends to have its own Whitewater rafting, world-class bird ing," their ancestors likely relied flash pattern and Photuris females watching (400 + species), an expert, on pheromones to find a partner, as can mimic several. By emitting the bilingual guide staff, and a beauti- many insects do. Light first appeared signals of lusty Pliotiims females, a ful butterfly sanctuary, all wdthin in the larvae probably to adver- fatale turns reach of our gourmet restaurant — femme hopeful males tise their and luxuriously appointed cabins. toxicity and so warn away into meals. (She actually harvests predators—and only later evolved their chemical repellents for her Pico Bonito Lodge is your home in into a seducer supreme for the o\vn defense.) Honduras, whether considering a adults. Thus firefly courtship now visit to the mysterious Mayan ruins attracts a lot of outside attention. In Lewis, an evolufionary ecologist of Copan or the spectacular coral Sara southern Michigan last July, Rick at Tufts University, emphasizes reefs of the beautiful Bay Islands. Lieder had no trouble spotting males how sexual selection has shaped [email protected] blinking in the air, females in low- firefly evolution and studies what wwTv.picobonito.com lying vegetation biding their time to female fireflies want in a mate. In blink back, and pairs about to mate. general, the brighter, the faster, the 1-888-428-0221 (U.S./Canada) How can fireflies, aka lightning longer (in duration), and the more 1-312-345-3288 (Worldwide) bugs, afford such flashiness? (For the pulses a male can emit, the bet-

504-440-0388 or 0389 record, they're neither flies [order ter. So competition is fierce among

(Honduras Direct) Diptera] nor bugs [Hemiptera] , but males. Copulation can last up to beetles [Coleoptera].) In brief, many nine hours, to ensure paternity. of them taste awful, and predators Sometimes "love knots" arise when indiscriminately avoid them. Nearly single males try to break up already all of the 2,000 or so firefly species nrating couples. worldwide sport black, yellow, and Depending on habitat, though, red coloration, lest their notoriety preferences can change. In fact, for an unsavory cocktail of chemi- some firefly species have lost their cals be overlooked in the daytime. light-producing abilities and revert- Absent predators, fireflies are free ed to pheromones. As people crowd to turn up the wattage. At dusk out open spaces and light pollution in Southeast Asia, male Pteroptyx increases, more firefly species may fireflies renrain stationary, blinking follow that dark route.

"Wait until dark" is not usually the motto of photographers work- ing without a flash or a tripod, but Rick Lieder prefers natural light

and likes chasing fireflies at dusk. Lieder is both a photographer and a painter. His artwork has graced the covers of two Newbery hon- orees, A Single Shard (Medal winner) and Princess Academy (Honor Book), and will be featured in a children's book to be published in 2010. More of his work can be seen at http://bugdreams.com.

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WORD EXCHANGE nature.net by robert anderson SUPERORGANISMS

-^.•^^- .. Hebrew Lesson . -ammmBogw^ A little more than a year ago, lin- guist Sarah Grey Thomason reported mm Vittorio Maestro Editor in Chief on a Native American language that Steven R. Black Art Director is on the brink of disappearing ["At a Loss for Words," 12/07-1/08]. rS^HH Erin Espelie Executive Editor Subsequently, Allen Tobias, a writer Aw ^v.sm'mf Senior Editors and producer for print, film, and Rebecca Kessler, Dolly Setton Melisa Beveridge Assistatit Art Director suggested a contrasting lan- video, I have a love/hate relationship with the Annie Gottlieb Copy Chief ants, termites, bees, and that orga- guage story, that of Hebrew, which wasps Graciela Flores Editor-at-Large nize into miniature societies. Their castes was revived as a "mother tongue" Florence Brauner Vohniteer and capacity for intricate group behavior Heather Gordon Art Intern during the twentieth century. create alien worlds as enthralling as any Contributing Editors Tobias, whose specialties are public in science fiction. But social insects may Robert Anderson, OHviaJudson, Avis Lang, health, natural sciences, and—most bite, sting, or slowly eat your house. And Charles Liu, Laurence A. Marschall, Richard Milner, just the idea of hundreds or thousands pertinently—modern history, looked Robert H. Mohlenbrock, Joe Rao, Stephan Reebs, of insects acting in sync, with some mys- A. Rice, Adam Summers, Neil deGrasse Tyson into the subject on our behalf and Judy terious group intelligence, is frightening. recommended we contact Benjamin The well-l^nown scientist and author E. O. Charles E. Harris PnbUshcr Harshav, author o£ Language in Time Wilson betrays no such ambivalence, how- Edgar L. Harrison Advertising Director ever. To learn about his career, go to www. of Revolution . We think you will find Maria Volpe Promotion Director eowilson.org click on "about" and then and Paratore National Advertising Manager Harshav 's analysis in this month's Sonia W. "life & work." Wilson's new book with Bert Adam Cohen Advertising Manager issue rich and original. Is it natural Holldobler, reviewed in this issue, is The Meredith Miller Production Manager history? Yes, it is: the adaptation of Superorganism. To explore my guide to re- Joe Sharkey Manager, PubUshing Services human groups to the environment lated Web sites, please visit the magazine For advertising information online (www.naturalhistorymag.com). call 646-356-6508 (which includes their social circum- Advertising Sales Representatives stances), largely achieved through ROBERT ANDERSON is a freelance science writer Detroit—BzTTon Media Sales, LLC. 3 1 3-268-3996 who lives in Los Angeles. culture, is part of nature. Chicago—Kohcn Purdy & Associates, 312-726-7800 Vittorio Maestro M/e5lCodi7—On Course Media Sales, 310-710-7414; Peter Scott & Associates. 415-421-7950 Editor in Chief Druin Burch replies: Several Tbronlo—Amencan PubHshers Representatives Ltd.. 416-363-1388 readers correctly noted that Atlanta and Miami—Rickles and Co., 770-664-4567 „uu,:l=l_ ^^a^BF ..r^r-^ S(?Hf/j.4)(im(:Holmes) for KR|^a.#' "J Market Classijied-Medi^ Options, 800-442-644 ||if\--^"";iBB3 introducing hand washing in ||:-^"-^--":-=--#>.;s maternity hospitals the con- Ih^HHB^yl and Todd Happer Vice President, Science Education i^p^-l^ss =s^":r =:- iv.,*»i™,„51."",\C sequent drop in puerperal fever. Educational Advisory Board Semmelweis played an important B^^M David Chesebrough COSI Columbus " role and possessed a truth ahead of Stephanie RatclitTe Naniral History Museum of the Adirondack ^*&^^^^'''' ' lb: — —=—^^ ^ MadaTcch-lsrael National Museum Science his time. But he was neither alone Ronen Mir of Carol Valenta Saint Louis Science Center Honorable Mention in this nor very successful in per-

I was amazed that Druin Burch suading others. Had I been given Natural History Magazine, Inc.

could write "Death Beds" [11/08] more space, I would undoubtedly Charles E. Harris President, ChiefExecutive Officer BuUer General Manager on puerperal, or childbed, fever have mentioned him, as stories Judy Cecile Washington General Manager usually without once mentioning the on childbed fever do. But Charles Rodin Publisliing Advisor Hungarian physician Ignaz on reflection, I am glad I did not. To contact us regarding your subsaiption, to order a new Semmelweis. In 1847 Semmelweis Semmelweis's name deserves to be subscription, or to change your address, please visit our recognized independently that the remembered but does not merit Web site www.naturalhistorymag.com or \vrite to us at cause of contagion was an agent ubiquity. A more glaring omission Natural History RO. Box 5000. Harlan, lA 51593-0257. carried by dirty hands, and made was Louis Pasteur. Natural History (ISSN 0028-0712) is published monthly, except for combined hand washing mandatory for his issues in July/August .ind December/January; by Natural Histor>' M.igazine. Inc., in affiliation with the American Museum of Natural History. Central students entering the obstetric wards Park West at 79ch Street. New York. NY 10024. E-mail: nhmag@natural Natural History ii'ekoiiics correspuvi- hisiorj'mag.com. Natural History Magazine, Inc. is solely responsible for of Vienna General Hospital. Like editorial content and publishing practices. Subscriptions: S30.00 a year; for dciuc from readers. Letters should he sent via Canada and all other countries: S40.0(l a year. Periodicals postage paid at New Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr., he faced York, NY, and at additional mailing offices. Canada Publications Mail No. to e-mail [email protected] or 40030827. Copyright © 2009 by Natural Hision' Magazine. Inc. All righLs ridicule for his ideas. reserved. No pan of tliis periodical m.iy be reproduced without written consent skepticism and byfax to 646-356-6511 All letters should of Naliml History. If you would like to contact us regarding your subscrip- Gabor Markus include a daytime telephone nimiber, and all tion or to enter a new subscription, please write to us at Natural Histori'. P.O. Box 5000, Harlan, lA 51593-0257. Posniiaster: Send address changes to Buffalo, New York letters may be editedfor length and clarity. Xaimil History. RO, Box 5000. Harlan, lA 51537-5000. Printed in the U.S.A.

6 NATURAL HISTORY February 2009 New from New York T/mes bestselUng author NEIL deGRASSE TYSON The Til®?> *^. vail ?L PlU't 9 ica- jvjae^

In 2006, Pluto was demoted from planet to dwarf— against passionate opposition. AUTHOR NEW YORK TIMES BEST-SELLING Now, the acclaimed astrophysicist NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON Neil deGrasse Tyson delves deep into the fascinating planetary science TtLe behind the debate, at the same time 5ia»'et chronicling America's intense but irrational love affair with Pluto- man's best celestial friend.

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mm>' EST. 1900 -* SAMPLINGS

Mystery Leaf When a high-ranking Mesopotamian that sissoo leaves, with their pointy ends, woman named Pu-Abi was laid to rest smooth edges, and straight veins, are dead in the Royal Cemetery of Ur some 4,500 ringers for the golden burial ornaments. years ago, she wore a spectacular head- Then as now, wild sissoo trees grew dress. The adornment, disinterred in from eastern Iran to the Indus Valley, at

the ig20s, in what is now Iraq, sports least 800 miles away from Ur. Yet the tree numerous gold leaves modeled after an could well have been an object of trade; unknown species—and so do numerous beautiful handles and boxes crafted from less-elaborate accessories buried with its hard, dark wood have turned up else- other women at Ur. Archaeologists have where in the Middle East, and its oil has proposed several trees native to the area medicinal properties. as leaf models, but none quite match. Still, why model funeral ornaments So Margareta Tengberg, of the Rene on sissoo leaves? Association with an Ginouves Institute for Archaeology and imported luxury is one possibility, but Anthropology in Nanterre, France, and the team thinks symbolism the likeliest two colleagues searched farther afield, and explanation. The sissoo grows only near now propose a new botanical prototype: water and may have signified life eternal Pu-Abi's tieaddress, above; gold

the sissoo tree—also known as shisham to people inhabiting a dry land. necklace (detail), top left; sissoo- or Indian rosewood. The team points out (Antiquity) —Stephan Reebs tree leaf, top right

DNA Hopscotch In or Out?

Genes are normally inherited Newly discovered fossils from New Mexico and China are from parents, but they can also providing contradictory clues to the origin of the turtle's be inserted Into a genome by vi- shell. Two hypotheses have long competed as the evolutionary ruses, plasmids, and other foreign explanation. One proposes that ancestral turtles grew bony agents—a phenomenon called plates on their skin that eventually fused with one another horizontal transfer. Bacteria are and with underlying ribs. The other holds that the ribs ex- promiscuous gene swappers, but panded and became embedded in the skin, which ossified to horizontal transfer has been docu- form the shell.

mented in only a few multicellular Walter G. Joyce, now at the University of Tiibingen in Ger- organisms: a handful of plants, many, and four colleagues report that the shell of the New

insects, and fishes. That short list Mexican fossil—about 210 million years old—is very thin and just grew notably longer, thanks to doesn't quite connect to the ribs. Bony spines on the neck a study by geneticists at the Univer- show that ancient turtles' skin could readily ossify. Points go sity of Texas at Arlington. to the "from the skin in" hypothesis.

John K. Pace II, his graduate Chun Li, of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing, and advisor Cedric Feschotte, and four colleagues describe three Chinese fossils. At 220 million stwo colleagues were studying years old, the fossils represent the most primitive turtle spe- jthe genome of the bush baby, a cies known. The species has a plastron—the ventral part of the

I nocturnal African primate, when shell—but, intriguingly, only a poorly developed carapace—the ^they discovered a group of trans- dorsal part. The dorsal ribs are markedly expanded, scoring posons—long DNA strands that can move around and copy them- points for the "from the ribs out" scenario. selves within the genome. Surveying GenBank, a database of gene To confound matters even more, the Chinese turtle was sequences, the team was surprised to uncover the same trans- aquatic, the American turtle terrestrial. Perhaps the turtle

posons in other vertebrate genomes: tenrec (a hedgehog), little shell evolved in brown bat, mouse, rat, green anole lizard, and African Ancient turtles from China opossum, one environment , clawed frog all had them. But the other twenty-seven vertebrate and adapted to (artist's rendering) genomes in the database did not. suit the other. For

Only horizontal transfer could explain how a small group of now, it seems, distantly related species came to share the same transposons. the shell hides Originally, the transposons may have jumped from a parasitic or its origins just

prey species independently to each of the eight vertebrates, per- as well as it does haps carried by an infectious virus. Or they may have jumped to one its owner. (Pro- vertebrate and from there to the others. In any case, the transfers ceedings of the didn't happen yesterday. Tne amount of genetic variation between Royal Society B, the transposons indicass that they jumped between 15 million and Nature) 46 million years ago. (PNAS) —S.R. -S.R.

10 NATURAL HISTORY February 2009 -^^

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'M' —

SAMPLINGS

Red-Hot Cones Queen of Her Castle

The western conifer-seed bug, Leptoglossus In fiddler-crab architecture, chimneys to spend time and energy on construction

occidentalis, has a peculiar world view. Ob- cylindrical mud walls the crabs build projects. As it turns out, females build jects stand out against the background as a around their burrow entrance—have vari- more chimneys than males because they result not of their color, but of their tempera- ous functions. Depending on the crab spe- have to, and because they can. {Biology ture—and the infrared radiation that comes cies, they hide the hideout from wandering Letters) —G.F.

with it. Trees, warmed by their active me- males looking for lodging, shield mating

tabolism, appear as if on fire, and their even males from rivals, or regulate the burrow's

warmer reproductive organs— in conifers, the temperature and humidity. News from Aus- cones—seem to glow like embers. The bugs tralia now suggests that the fiddler crab navigate this thermoscape using infrared re- Uca capricornis uses chimneys to conceal

ceptors to locate the precious seed-bearing its burrow from intruders, and that females cones they feed on. do more building than males. Stephen Takacs of Simon Fraser Univer- Ecologist Patricia R.Y. Backwell and

sity in Burnaby, British Columbia, and several her team at the Australian National Uni-

colleagues discovered the novel system after versity in Canberra observed the behav- noticing that conifer-seed bugs are often at- ior of U. capricornis chimney builders

tracted to warm objects in people's homes. and nonbuilders, males and females,

To find out more, the team first measured and individuals of various ages. To test the temperature and radiation of different chimney function, they released a crab pine-tree parts. Cones were as many as 27 near burrows with or without chimneys. Fahrenheit degrees warmer than needles Most intruders could not find concealed

and emitted proportionally stronger infrared burrows, and even when they did, it took radiation. Then, they tested the ability of much longer than finding exposed ones. conifer-seed bugs to perceive the radiation. The chimneys effectively kept would-be

Placed in cooled experimental boxes, the usurpers out. insects were offered the choice of a strong As for the gender bias, females lack or weak infrared source. Insects overwhelm- the enlarged claw—the "fiddle"—that

ingly chose the strong radiation. Electron males possess, and so they are ill- micrographs of the insects' abdomens equipped to defend their territory direct-

revealed eight bristly organs that, when ly. They are efficient feeders, however: irradiated, responded with frantic electri- their two small claws can alternate to cal activity. Moreover, when the presumed deliver food to the mouth almost continu- receptors were covered, the bugs lost their ously. Thus well-fed females can afford infrared "vision." Takacs and his team suspect that many other insect species can sense infrared, and that some plants use the radiation to adver- tise to pollinators. {Proceedings of the Royal Onboard Computer Society B) —Graciela Flores Two chemists at the California Institute of Technology have engineered a cellular "computer" within the genetic material of living yeast cells. The cells can signal Western conifer- the presence or absence of two drugs in their environment—theophylline, a former seed bug asthma treatment, and tetracycline, an antibiotic—by activating a gene that makes a fluorescent protein. The cell engineers, Maung Nyan Win and Christina D. Smolke, have programmed several simple logical operations. A cell can signal when both drugs are present (AND, in the parlance of computer programmers), when

either one or the other is present (OR), when neither is present (NOR), or

when one particular drug is present but the other absent (NAND). To build their biocomputer. Win and Smolke inserted three kinds of RNA into yeast cells: aptamers, which bind to specific molecules; enzymes called ribozymes; and "transmitter" sequences that let the aptamers turn the ribozymes on or off. They deployed a small set of aptamers, ribo- Ttiermograph zymes, and transmitters, in various combinations, to program the logical stiows that operations. The foreign RNA worked independently of the cells' own ma- pine cones are chinery without hampering its normal function. warmer and Win and Smolke's feat is a step toward the development of programma- emit more infra- ble cellular tools that could one day help detect cancer, selectively deliver red radiation produc- than needles. drugs to sick organs, degrade specific pollutants, enhance food tion, and more. (Science) —S.R.

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Order by toll-free phone: 1-800/600-2777, or (fastest!) by fax: 1-415/356-7804. Visit our website at www.joxnira.coin ^i^i^SAMPLINGS ^ Rocky Road Diamonds may be forever, carbon dioxide, helping to but that's not true of most redistribute the elements. minerals. In fact, about Those changes enabled two-thirds of the 4,300 the evolution of some known minerals on Earth 1,250 new minerals. today owe their existence Finally, during the past to biological processes, 2.5 billion years, biological

and thus evolved fairly re- processes particularly Female warttiog and young take shelter in a burrow. — I cently in geological terms. photosynthesis—have So says Robert M. Hazen profoundly affected min- of the Carnegie Institution eral composition by oxy- Hog Haven in Washington, D.C., who genating the atmosphere Think "burrow dweller," and the animal that springs to mind with seven colleagues and thus promoting oxi- might be a gopher, maybe an owl—but certainly not a pig. Yet identified three phases of dation of ores. Malachite, each night African warthogs hunker down inside burrows, usu- mineral evolution. turquoise, and nearly ally choosing the abandoned digs of an aardvark. They back The first phase began 3,000 other minerals down into a tunnel that leads to a circular chamber, point their more than 4.55 billion could occur only on a liv- formidable tusks toward the entrance, and settle in to enjoy years ago, as the solar ing planet, Hazen says. some hakuna matata time. system started develop- Minerals do not un- Sometimes several adolescents or adult females even share ing. Chemical elements dergo such Darwinian the same den, with females caring for any dependent young

came together, forming processes as natural cooperatively. That's unusual behavior for an ungulate, and it

about 250 simple miner- selection or competition doesn't appear to improve piglet survival. Could it be that a scar- als that in turn coalesced for niches. Still, Hazen city of real estate dictates the curious domestic arrangements? into planets. On Earth, the notes, mineral evolution is No, say Angela M. White, of the University of Nevada, Reno, second phase stretched more than simple change and Elissa Z. Cameron, of the University of Pretoria in South from 4.55 billion to 2.5 over time. The diverse Africa. Their recent survey of a South African game reserve, billion years ago, starting and complex mineral as- home to more than 3,500 warthogs, indicates that at least half with the violent collision semblages on Earth today the burrows are unoccupied on any given night. Moreover, that formed the Moon. result from a sequence there was no correlation between the percentage of mothers Earth's temperature and of irreversible physical bunking up together and the percentage of burrows occupied—

pressure varied wildly; and biological processes, not what you'd expect if dens were scarce. plate tectonics began starting with those simple White and Cameron think the communal denning and piglet churning the planet's pre-solar accretions. rearing may help warthogs forge alliances and find safety in surface; and volatiles ap- {American Mineralogist) numbers against the many predators that enjoy ham dinners. peared, such as water and —Harvey Leifert [Animal Behaviour) —S.R.

Turquoise could not exist on a lifeless planet.

^ THE WARMING EARTH Let There Light was 23 percent higher than the 1998-2002 Be average. All that missing ice let more light

In thirty years of satellite surveillance, stream into the water, boosting photosyn-

never has there been so little ice covering thesis; the phytoplankton colonized a great-

the Arctic Ocean as in the summer of 2007. er area and benefited from a longer growing (And 2008 was a close second.) Images season than ever before.

show a 39 percent loss compared with the Less sea ice and more phytoplankton in

1979-2000 average, a dramatic extension coming years will probably mean farewell

of a trend that started in the early 1970s. to polar bears and ringed seals, which de- The sea ice will almost certainly continue pend on the ice, and hello to zooplankton to decrease, exacerbating changes already and fishes, which feed directly or indirectly affecting the region's food chain—from the on the microscopic plants. Arrigo extends bottom up and from the top down. a guarded welcome to the surging phyto-

Comparing satellite images of Arctic sea plankton, which will absorb extra carbon di- ice with both satellite and field data on chlo- Warm colors on a map of the Arctic show oxide—though the effect on global warming rophyll concentrations, Kevin R. Arrigo and areas where the 2007 phytoplankton may be largely offset by the loss of reflec- two colleagues at Stanford University calcu- growing season exceeded that of 2006— tive ice. (Geophysical Research Letters)

lated that phytoplankton production in 2007 by as many as a hundred days. —S.R.

14 NATURAL HISTORY February 2009 —

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She was an

Italian supermodel. w^ yjIP^^ ^^mp^ He knew he would 1 / 1 have just one chance ^H^MPmi^^^v ^Ssfff ^^^1 to impress her.

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iSfJ-^

Text and Photographs by Arnold B. Grobman

Ground lizard (Ameiva exsu

Several years after my retirement the fields or woods of Virgin Gorda, from the University of Missouri— were nearly correct in identifying

St. Louis, my wife, Hulda, and I the eight lizards of the island. (They settled on Virgin Gorda in the British lumped two species that look almost

Virgin Islands. As a biologist, I devel- identical under one name, \vhereas oped an interest in the native fauna. they bestowed two names on anoth-

In particular, I enjoyed the nearly er species that is sexually dimorphic.)

ubiquitous lizard populations and de- Mission accomplished, I wrote cided to spend some time writing an the pamphlet, printed 4,000 copies educational pamphlet about them. at fifty-two cents apiece, and sold

Although acquainted with the sci- them at gift shops for fifty cents. I

entific names, I did not know what also donated about 350 copies to lo-

the locals called their eight native cal schools. Later I asked a teacher

lizard species. To find out, I began whether the youngsters were mak- Doctor lizard to visit the Blue Haven at lunch- ing any use of them. fAnolis stratulusj time—a tavern where a group of "Oh yes," she replied. "At re- working men gathered to have a few cess they used to try to step on the beers, shoot pool, and eat. One was lizards. It was rather a game. Now

an electrician, one a plumber, one they run out to the yard, and I hear a fisherman; the professions of the shouts, 'That's a doctor lizard.' 'No,'

others I did not happen to learn. that's a man lizard.' 'On that tree,

Several weeks later, I casually there's a yellow-sided lizard.' They brought along a selection of my liz- no longer try to step on the lizards.

ard photographs to the Blue Haven. Any attempt to do so is frowned on "That's a cotton ginner," said one by other classmates." of the men, when shown the first photo. The others agreed. The next riends of mine at the St. Louis Zoo, picture was unanimously deemed who knew of my newfound in- a "man" lizard. They concurred terest, wanted some live specimens among themselves on the names for of the Sphaerodactylus partheiwpioii

eight kinds of lizards. I thought that lizard, which is reputed to be the was remarkable. These men, whose smallest lizard in the world. The occupations did not pro- curators were anxious to see if they vide opportunities for could successfully breed the crea-

spending time in tures in their laboratory. So I set

Man lizard (Anolis cristatellusj

16 NATURAL HISTORY February 2009 W/^^^^^ out to transport that spe- those lizards," he shouted derisively, is to prevent ^^^ cies and several others from when I showed him my jars. "In the entrance of 0^^^ Virgin Gorda to Missouri, by Puerto Rico we have them this noxious animals placing them in mayonnaise jars big!" He extended his forearm to into the country. with perforated lids, indicate the distance between his None of the four k In all I made four trips to the zoo, fingertips and his elbow. "Go on," I encountered ^ and each encounter with United he said. knew whether V States customs at the San Juan airport The agent on my third trip was the animals I m was a surprise. The first time, the a young woman. "I have some was transporting f agent asked what kinds of lizards I live lizards to declare," I said and were harmful or

had and if I had permission to export started to open my briefcase. "Oh," whether I intended

them. I handed him a letter from she protested, "don't show them to to release them in

the British Virgin Islands minister of me. I hate those things." And I was southern Florida, where they could

agriculture and a list of the species. whisked through customs. thrive. Indeed, those agents seemed

He asked me if I had any Varanus On my fourth trip, my agent less interested in learning about liz- lizards. (He could have determined was a likeable man whose first lan- ards than my drinking buddies and

that I hadn't by looking at the list guage obviously was not English. the Virgin Gorda schoolchildren. or inspecting my jars of lizards.) I He looked at the jars containing the Arnold B. Grobman, a biologist and responded by gently advising him small lizards and asked, "Is insecta?" educator, was born in Neivark, New Jersey, that Varanus does not occur in Virgin "No," I replied, "animalia." in 1918. He received iiis Ph.D. from the Gorda and, in fact, does not occur in "Okay," he said and I cleared University of Rochester, and later served on the Western Hemisphere. With that, I customs. the faculty there. He has also worked at the cleared customs vi'ith my lizards. I found those incidents amusing, University of Florida, Rutgers University, On my second trip the customs but also troubling. One of the re- the University of Illinois at Chicago, and the agent was a burly fellow. "You call sponsibilities of U.S. customs agents University of Missouri-St. Louis.

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February 2009 NATURAL HISTORY 17 ,

•

he sweetest words to a scientist, to paraphrase of humankind was still new and startling. The art- Isaac Asimov, may be not "Eureka! I've found it!" ist, Ernest Griset, whose drawings often appeared in

but "Hmm . . . that's funny. What's that doing Punch magazine, worked with pioneer prehistorian there?" A historian of science often has the same ex- and polymath John Lubbock, Darwin's protege and perience: a bit of data pops up that just doesn't seem to only student. The scion of a banking family, Lubbock

fit in with the rest. Yet, if greeted with curiosity and had commissioned the series of paintings, openness, the anomaly can lead to an unanticipated When I visited the Priory, Adrian Green, the cura- treasure. I experienced such a serendipitous moment tor at the time, invited me to the small storehouse be- on October 3, 2006, in a small museum storage build- hind the museum, where he showed me the dramatic ing in the English countryside. It wasn't as dramatic Griset watercolors. Spear-toting hunters chased bison as detecting an unaccounted wobble in a planetary or surrounded a woolly mammoth in some of the im- orbit, or a Staphylococcus-free zone around a growth ages, while other paintings depicted tribal life in the of Penicillmm mold. But Paleolithic and Neolithic. a seemingly out-of-place (Lubbock had coined both painting in the archive of terms in his 1865 book, Pre- the Bromley Museum, near historic Times.) Such imagi- Charles Darwin's home in nary reconstructions may Kent, set off an unexpect- seem commonplace today, ed cascade of insights into but they were a bold de- Darwin's life and thought. ^„m parture from primal scenes

The Bromley Museum Diagram from Voyage oi the Beag\e (1839). in which Darwin based on stories of the (locatfed in Orpington, in proposed that coral deposits build up on the sides of sinkirig Bible. It was a pleasure to the London borough of volcanic cones, forming a characteristic circular structure view them, knowing they where they meet above summit. Bromley) houses an impor- the had been locked away for tant collection of local history in a medieval stone many years and had never even been published, hall called the Priory. I had learned that among its My heart truly raced, though, when Green pulled treasures is a trOye o£ about twenty paintings of pre- out a triptych of a tropical coral island encircling a historic scenes produced by an artist collaborating blue lagoon, fringed with palm trees and white sand,

with a scientist, jpos^bly the very first examples of "This one is signed and dated 1871 by the same artist, the genre now calle31|;palepart." They were created Ernest Griset," he said. "Biit we don't have any idea

in 1871:^the same ye% that Darwin published The what it is, or why it is archived here with Lubbock's Descent of Man—when tnefidea of the great antiquity prehistory collection."

February 2009. — ' the Eye of Reason

—--^ r- A rediscovere3*^inting celebrates Charles Darwin's view of life W BY RICHARD MILNER

Micronesian atoll, encircling a lagoon, in the South Pacific

f'WitSifWTV' ""^fWf^' \"\"n'i'"'T\ 'j- .' A' i*«C-^>^/A*'!lt5fti*:JXl^i?;^WJSiCtMtE

I instantly had a hunch, however, strengthened scale. No one yet had any idea of how deeply reefs when a tiny detail caught my eye—a saihng ship near were anchored in the sea, or how long it might have the horizon of the painting's central panel. Darwin taken to produce one. loved coral lagoon islands and theorized about their The young Darwin who embarked on the world- origins. His first scientific book, which he published changing voyage of the Beagle may have been pre- in 1842, was The Structure and Distribution of Coral disposed to a fascination with coral reefs thanks to Reefs, hi it he described three types of coral reefs: bar- his grandfather Erasmus. A physician, philosopher,

rier reefs, which rise like walls out of the sea, separat- botanist, inventor, and poet, Erasmus Darwin was

ed from land by a channel; friiigiug reefs, which stretch the first naturalist in Europe to publish a coherent along a shoreline; and atolls, which are circular is- theory of evolution, anticipating many of Charles's lands that enclose a lagoon, like the one in C ideas by seventy years—and he did much of it in painting. Could this be a long-lost representation of verse! (His book-length poem The Temple of Nature, one of Darwin's atolls, commissioned by Lubbock as for example, includes Islands and Continents raised by a surprise for the 62-year-old naturalist—complete Earthquakes.) The Darwin family's ancestral coat of with the ship of his youth, HMS Beagle? arms consisted of three scallop shells in a row. To that escutcheon, Erasmus flamboyantly added the ong before Darwin became interested in coral reefs motto E conchis omnia ("everything from shells"). and atolls, sailors and explorers had wondered how In 1770 he had it painted on his carriage, but later they originated. Some had suggested that fish removed it when the local cleric's accusations of working together by the thousands—had built the blasphemy threatened his medical practice. It had structures by carrying grains of sand in their mouths. been the eighteenth-century equivalent of display- Others realized that the reefs had ing a Darwin Fish bumper sticker been built by billions of. tiny soft- on a Kansas ambulance. bodied polyps (Darwin called them While the Beagle visited the Chil- "coral insects") that secreted cham- ean coast in January 1835, Darwin bers of calcium carbonate around witnessed a volcanic eruption, and themselves. But why were such huge he got caught in a major earthquake forms created, and how did atolls onshore in February. He immediately take on their circular shapes? Some naturalists considered coral reefs to Detail of the ship in Ernest Grisei's be communal homes, like wasp nests watercolor shows a striking resem- or beehives, only on a much grander blance to HMS Beagle.

February 2009 Ernest Griset's 1871 triptych of an atoll. The long-forgotten mark the spot where a former land lies buried in the watercolor was discovered by the author in a British museum depths of the ocean." J storeroom a cache of paintings commissioned by John among From April 1 through 12, 1836, Darwin and Fitz- Lubbock. It may have been timed to celebrate Darwin's revised Roy explored the Cocos, or Keeling, Islands in the and updated 1874 reissue of his 1842 treatise on coral reefs. northeast Indian Ocean. That marked the first (and began to realize that the surrounding land exemplified perhaps only) time Darwin actually set foot on a coral the doctrine set out by geologist Charles Lyell in his island [see Darwin's diary entry on the opposite page]. In- Principles of Geology: that given enough time, the natu- vestigating both the ocean and lagoon sides of the ral, observable forces at work today were sufficient South Keeling atoll, Darwin expressed awe that the to explain the formation of major geological features tiny creatures could create such "monuments": without the need to invoke supernatural catastrophes. I Exploring inland, Darwin and Captain Robert Fitz- The naturalist will feel this astonishment more deeply <

Roy found mussel beds rotting ten feet above the wa- after having examined the soft and almost gelatinous i

terline, indicating recent uplift. That made Darwin bodies of these apparently insignificant creatures, and | think of marine shells he'd seen near Valparaiso, fully when he knows that the solid reef increases only on

1,300 feet above sea level. He concluded that "succes- the outer edge, which day and night is lashed by the sive small uprisings, such as that which accompanied breakers of an ocean never at rest. ^_, or caused the earthquake" were lifting up the land, as were oceanic volcanoes—which he observed in the He was further amazed to find that delicate, branch- Galapagos, also in 1835. In an 1844 letter, Darwin ing species thrived only in the calm, clear waters of the recalled that even "when seeing a thing never seen by lagoon, while much hardier, boulder-like brain corals

Lyell, one yet saw it partially through his eyes." (genus Porites) inhabited the edges, where they with- And so, too, Darwin was able to theorize on things stood the violent poundings of the crashing waves. he hadn't yet seen, say coral reefs. Uplift in land ar- Historian of science Randal Keynes—Darwin's eaSj he reasoned, ought to be counterbalanced by great-great-grandson—wrote me that he rates Dar- oceanic subsidence. Such subsidence could explain win's account of his time on the Keeling Islands reefs and atolls, and in turn, those structures would as one of the key passages in the whole Journal of provide persuasive evidence that large areas of ocean Researches (1839), later retitled Voyage of the Beagle. floor were in fact subsiding. Darwin knew that live "What makes the importance of the view for him

reef-building corals grow only in fairly shallow wa- particularly clear is the language of his account of it ter, though he did not yet know why. His brilliant in his diary entry for 6 April 1836," writes Keynes, insight was to realize that coral animals would keep highlighting Darwin's use of the words "simplicity" building, on top ofeolder skeletons to stay within and "grandeur" in his description: -flEL. their zone of life am|heir foundation slowly sank.

He wrote, "We mus^feok at a Lagoon Island as a [T]here is to my mind a considerable degree of gran- monument raised byi^Mfeds of tiny architects, to. deur in the view of the outer shores of these Laffoon

n-OKY February 2009" .

Islands. There is a simplicity in the barrier-like beach, BEAGLE DIARY APRIL 1, 1836] On entering the Lagoon the scene heaving water of the ocean by a the margin of green bushes & tall Cocoa nuts, the solid

is very curious & rather pretty . . line of breakers . . . [As] a white flat of Coral rock, strewed with occasional great frag- The shoal, clear & still water of the cloud affords a pleasing contrastj ments, & the line of furious breakers all rounding away lagoon, resting in its greater part so in the lagoon dark bands of towards either hand. on white sand, is when illumi- living Coral are seen through the

nated by a vertical sun of a most emerald green water . . . [T]he

Sandra Herbert, in Charles Darwin, Geologist (Cor- vivid green. This brilliant expanse, beach of glittering white Calcare-i nell University Press, 2005), also calls attention to the which is several miles wide, is on ous sand, forms the border to fact that he used those "two of his favorite words" to all sides divided . . . from the dark these fairy spots. — C. Darwin describe atolls, words found in the famous last sen- tence of Ott the Origin of Species: larger landmasses—^were seething with activity, both seismic and animal. In Voyage of the Beagle he wrote:

There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed into a few We feel surprise when travelers tell us of the vast di- forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone mensions of the Pyramids and other great ruins, but cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from how utterly insignificant are the greatest of these, when so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and compared to these mountains of stone accumulated by

' most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved. the agency of various minute and tender animals! This

is a wonder which does not at first strike the eye of the Darwin's delight in and admiration of the Keeling body, but, after reflection, the eye of reason. atolls spurred him to complete his theory of coral reef formation, which he had conceived in the earthquakes pon his return to England in the fall of 1836, of Chile and developed further after seeing the spec- Darwin couldn't wait to explain his theory of tacular, reef-ringed volcanic island of Moorea (then / coral reefs to Lyell. Less than a month after the called Eimeo), near Tahiti, in November 1835. (Now Beagle docked, the two men met for the first time. part of French Polynesia, mysterious-looking Moorea As Darwin related it to a friend, Lyell "was so over- was the model for the island of Bali Ha'i in the Rod- come with delight that he danced about." Lyell soon gers and Hammerstein rnusical South Pacific—though wrote to Darwin, "I could think of nothing for days not in James Michener's novel Tales of the South Pacific, after your lesson on coral reefs, but of the tops of on which the musical was based.) Although the Beagle submerged continents. It is all true, but do not flatter did not land on Moorea, Darwin got a very good view yourself that you will be believed, till you are grow- of it by climbing more than two thousand feet up a ing bald, like me, with hard work & vexation at the

- Tahitian mountain. The island's skyline ofjagged vol- incredulity in the world." . canic peaks rose abruptly from the mirror-still lagoon Lyell reveled in Darwin's theory even though it sheltered by its barrier reef. Darwin was struck by the differed from his. As coral expert and historian of evidence that vast areas of the ocean floor—not just science David K. Stoddart at the University of Cali-

February 2009 fornia, Berkeley, explains, to account for the circular ReefMadness: Charles Darwin, Alexander Agassiz, and the form of atolls, "Lyell had suggested that the corals Meaning of Coral (Pantheon, 2005) by David Dobbs. colonized the rims of slightly submerged volcanic cra- Agassiz and others thought they had found reefs ters; Darwin on the other hand proposed a sequential forming in areas where the seafloor was lifting rather transformation of fringing reefs into barrier reefs and than sinking. Some geologists even blasted Darwin's then into atolls as the corals continued to grow up- method of doing science: rather than seeking patterns wards through repeated slight movements of subsid- of coral reef distribution on charts and maps, they ar- ence of the usuallv volcanic reef foundations." gued, he needed to visit more reefs firsthand, as they had done. However, Darwin thought that more visits hroughout the nineteenth century—and after Dar- to reefs were pointless unless "some doubly rich mil- win's death in 1882—Darwin's theory of reef for- lionaire" could be induced to make deep core drill- mation remained contentious. Alexander Agassiz, ings that would reveal their structure. son of the anti-evolutionist Harvard zoologist Louis Not until 1950—while attempting to destroy Eniwe- Agassiz, spent forty years and his considerable fortune tok, an atoll in the Marshall Islands, near the ec]uator visiting hundreds of the world's reefs, but died before in the Pacific Ocean—did science find definitive an- he could write a contradictory theory. For some de- swers. Preparatory to testing a hydrogen bomb there, cades, around the turn of the century, Darwin's coral the U.S. Government sent geophysicists to drill test reef theory, like his evolution theory, fell out of favor cores of the coral deeper than anyone had previously with scientists, but eventually both returned with re- done. Dobbs relates that finally, at 4,200 feet, the drills newed vigor. The saga of the controversies that surged hit "a greenish basalt, the volcanic inountain on which around the coral theory has been beautifully told in the reef had orisinated."

A BRIEF HISTORY QF REEF SCIENCE BY JENNIFER A. LANE

oral reefs are among the most intricate synthetic algae called zooxanthellae, which briefly dominated reef building until they were

and diverse ecosystems on Earth, yet inhabit the digestive cells of reef-building cor- replaced by primitive corals, according to

people long considered them mainly as als, are symbionts. The oxygen and nutrients Roger J. Cuffey, a geologist at Pennsylvania

sources of food and dangers to navigation. they produce speed their hosts' grov\rth, let- State University in University Park.

Scientific understanding of corals dates back ting the uppermost portion of the reef remain Many reef studies have had even broader

less than 300 years, to 1727. That's when near the life-giving light and warmth of the scientific implications. In 1963, the late the French naturalist Jean Andre Peyssonnel ocean surface, even as the seafloor subsides. Cornell University geologist John W. Wells

identified corals as animals. Scholars, who The energy captured photosynthetically also used the finding that corals grow faster dur-

at the time presumed they were plants, or helps make reefs unusually productive and ing the day than at night to show that Earth's

perhaps rocks, laughed Peyssonnel out of diverse, comparable to tropical rainforests. rotation has been slowing, because of friction the French Academy of Sciences. Subse- Examination of fossil reefs has revealed induced by the tides, by about two seconds

quent research proved Peyssonnel correct, their long evolutionary history. In 1924, the per 100,000 years. From the rhythm of daily

launching an effort to catalog the world's paleontologist Percy E. Raymond described grov\rth evident in fossil coral. Wells calculated

coral species. the Chazy Reef formation of Isle La Motte, that during the Devonian period (between 417

Among the first to be described scientifi- Vermont, as "the oldest coral reef in the million and 354 million years ago), a year had cally were specimens collected in the South world." At approximately 450 million years approximately 400 twenty-one-hour days.

Pacific during the first voyage of Captain old, Chazy is the earliest known reef in In recent decades, reef ecosystems James Cook, between 1768 and 1771. The which primitive corals began to play a small have become the source of important new

next major advance in understanding came in structural role. The first modern stony corals treatments for various human maladies: the

1842, when Charles Danwin explained coral- appeared more than 200 million years later. chemotherapy drug Ara-C and the anti-viral reef formation. Post-Darwinian discoveries We now know that reefs existed long drugs AZT and Acyclovir derive from com-

have involved nearly every area of science, before the first corals evolved. Microscopic pounds isolated from a Caribbean sponge, from geology and zoology to human medi- algae built the earliest reefs—leathery algal for example. Scientists continue exploring cine. Taxonomic studies have identified some mats interleaved with sediment, called the biology of coral reefs, focusing not only

850 extant reef-building coral species, as well stromatolites—at least 2 billion years ago, on benefits to people, but on preserving reefs as tens of thousands of reef-dwelling organ- before multicellular lifeforms had evolved, and from the substantial threats they face.

isms, and ecological research has illuminated possibly much earlier. Later, the spongelike the complex inten-elationships among them. archaeocyathids, now extinct, became the Jennifer A. Lane is a doctoral student in

An important landmark in reef biology first animals to build reefs. Bryozoans, tiny evolutionary biology at the City University was the 1931 finding by the British scientist colonial animals that secrete a hard calcare- of New York and the American Museum of

Charles M. Yonge that single-celled photo- ous skeleton much like that of modern corals. Natural History, both in New York City. _' — H

, v . - .,v,v , Dating of the tiny fossils in . ^^j^^ of the South Seas that he

' the bottommost layer of coral built an artificial grotto deco-

showed that the reef had gotten i 1 g rated with corals and shells its start in the Eocene. For more 3 near the big house. than thirty million years this / Darwin frequently walked

/;' - ' reef liad been growing—an inch ir; iL«ii ..\ . the footpath between his home «ii_Ji^ '""" a =:» and Elms, every millennium—on sinking 4. iP*. High where he may volcano, thickening as the lava have offered advice during the ¥}' I ' beneath it subsided. i . g planning of Griset's paintings or '^ S viewed and discussed each one 4amf:P ^^^jgjg^^^^^^ j^ as it was completed. However, jo more drillings and echo sound- 1 neither Darwin nor Lubbock ings confirmed that with rare ex- "'f ever used them to illustrate ceptions, reefs had formed only .U.». ° their books. And by the mid- in areas of seafloor subsidence all John Lubbock, Darwin's only(y student, examines twentieth century, the paint- over the Pacific and Caribbean, a captive colony of ants in 1900.^900. ings had been removed by the Although Darwin couldn't have family from High Elms. That foreseen it, his model fit perfectly with theories of plate was fortunate, because in August 1967 the great man- tectonics. In David Dobbs's words, "the movement of sion burned down (oddly, on what the grateful British the earth's huge plates explains the subsidence of the populace had dubbed "St. Lubbock's Day," the secular Pacific and many other reef areas. Darwin's theory was bank holiday Lubbock instituted). The estate grounds astoundingly correct." are now a public park and nature reserve.

And it was. as correct biologically as it was geologi- When Lubbock commissioned the triptych of the cally. We know now that reef-building corals thrive coral atoll, Darwin was preparing to reissue a revised only where their symbiotic, photosynthetic algae can and updated edition of The Structure and Distribution of receive sufficient sunlight to generate nutrients for the Coral Reefs, three decades after its initial publication. polyps (a depth of about eighty feet seems to be opti- It seems plausible that Lubbock planned the painting mal). While the ocean floor beneath them keeps sink- as a surprise for Darwin, to commemorate that sig- ing, colonies keep reaching upwards to receive sun- nificant milestone. In Griset's brushstrokes, Darwin's light. As they do so, they secrete calcium carbonate, tropical atoll appears isolated beneath a vast sky adding their minute contribution on top of the accu- jewel-like, pristine, and mysterious. The sailing ship mulated skeletons of millions of years. [See sidebar on is barely sketched in, but it is unmistakably a classic opposite page for more information on corals.] brig-sloop of the Cherokee class [see painting detail on page 19]. It even has a stripe along the hull and gun ~ruth to tell, not all of this raced through my mind ports along the side, as the Beagle did.

as I beheld Ernest Griset's painting of an atoll. But The painting remains sequestered against English

I was well acquainted with Darwin's theory of winters in the stone-brick storeroom at the Priory. coral reefs, and perhaps more important, I knew about Within its timeless world, the atoll awaits the arrival his close association with John Lubbock, who commis- of the iconic sailing ship on the horizon, bearing a sioned the artwork. Lubbock's father (also named John) young man who seeks to elucidate its mysteries. While was the major landowner in the Kent countryside. The studying corals, he will experience serendipity on a family's huge estate, High Elms, with its twenty-two- grand scale. By casting his "eye of reason" on natural room mansion, was about a mile and a half from Down phenomena that, operating over immense periods of House, Darwin's home. Indeed, Darwin's property was time, create "forms most beautiful and most wonder- a small island in the holdings of Lubbock. ful," he will change forever our view of life. From the age of eight, the younger John was men- tored by Darwin, twenty-five years his senior. As he matured, Lubbock took up many of his teacher's in- Contributing Editor Richard Milner, an associate in the Division of Anthropology at the American terests, including classification of barnacles, the rela- Museum of Natural History, has performed his tionship between insects and flowers, paleontology, onc-nian musical, C/iii/te Dcirwiii: Live & hi Coii- prehistory. Later and human an inveterate collector ccrl, worldwide. His new hook, Dani'iu'f L hiircrsc: of prehistoric stone tools, ethnographic artifacts, and Bvolulionfivin A 10 Z, will be published this spring

by the University of CJalifornia Press.',, - insect colonies, young Lubbock must have filled his .'o'?v:''' indulgent father's mansion with birds' nests, fossils, and flasks of pond water. So fascinated was the son by

February 2009 N.'vruuAi Flowers Have No Names

t.,it3i BY BENJAMIN HARSHAV

The revival

of Hebrew

as a living language

after two

ttiousand

years was

no miracle,

Above: Discount bookstalls set up in 1926 on Tel Aviv's

Rothschild Boulevard initi- ated a "Hebrew Book Day." The tradition continues, now with Hebrew Book Week held throughout Israel. Right: Hebrew Book Week at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, 2005. forge a national identity in the modern age, a Christian Europe, but they were gradually expelled from Togroup of people required a common history, with England, France, German cities, Spain, and Portugal. As a common mythology and treasure trove of mem- a result, in the sixteenth century most of world Jewry was ories, culture, and literature; a traditional territory; and a concentrated in Poland, which then also included what is national language. Some nations acquired power over a ter- now Lithuania, Belarus, and western Ukraine, making it ritory and established a "nation-state"; smaller nations that the largest kingdom of Europe. lacked political sovereignty, especially within the Russian When Poland was dismantled by its neighbors at the and Austro-Hungarian Empires, defined themselves by end of the eighteenth century, the Jews went with the ter- their culture and language. To that end, immense efforts ritory. Most were absorbed into the Russian Empire, but were invested in reviving old, "dead" languages, such as were kept in the occupied former Polish territories, in a Irish, Welsh, and Breton, but none of them became the huge geographical ghetto termed the Pale of Settlement. base language of a nation. With one exception: Hebrew. During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries the Jew- Hebrew was the language of the Bible. It had faded as ish population there grew rapidly, four- or five -fold in the a spoken language even before the Christian era: in the course of eighty years. Christian peasants still made up the Hellenistic period, Jews in Palestine spoke Aramaic and bulk of the population in the Pale; they lived in agricul- the upper classes spoke Greek. Yet the final death knell tural villages as slaves ("serfs") who—until their liberation for spoken Hebrew was the dispersion of Jews after the in 1861—could be bought and sold with their villages. destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem in a.d. 70. Expelled by decree, Jews made up only about 1 percent As a small wandering minority in the Diaspora, or lands of the population of the villages, where they managed outside Palestine, the Jews adopted the languages of the flour mills and taverns, peddled merchandise and crafts. local inhabitants, yet they also wrote and read Hebrew and But Jews constituted a real majority in hundreds of towns, Aramaic. During the Middle Ages, most of them lived in spread like polka dots over a vast territory. In the nineteenth century, in a typical small town (shtetl), Jews constituted two-thirds of the population, and increasingly in the cities they made up from a third to half the inhabitants. From those more urban settings Jews dominated much of the economy of western Rus- sia. Though devoid of civil rights, such as the right to own land or to hold government jobs, they developed local light industries (paper, wood, even hog bristle for brushes exported to England), artisan crafts, banking, and trade. They had their own educational system, hos- pitals, philanthropic and professional organizations, lit- erature, publishers, and newspapers. Intellectual life in the Pale was divided between pious Talmudic scholar- ship and the ferment of the Haskalah, or Jewish Enlight- enment—a movement inspired by the broader European Enlightenment—which encouraged Jews to study the secular arts and sciences and drew them toward assimi- lation into European society. The Jews had three private languages that separated them from their neighbors, all written in their own He- brew alphabet: Hebrew, the "Holy Tongue," the language of the Jewish Bible and ofmany prayers; the difficult Ara- maic, the frame language of the Talmud, the compen- dium of religious law studied in higher schools (yeshivas); and the European-based Yiddish, used for personal and public communication, even for rabbinical legal proceed- ings. Among Jews in the Diaspora, neither Hebrew nor Aramaic was instilled as a spoken language. Understand- ing texts in those tongues required learning, and the lan- guage of education was Yiddish, even when the texts be- m ing taught were written in Hebrew or Aramaic. Though venerated, Hebrew was not a living, everyday

language, and it might have remained in its restricted

February 2009 natural history 25 context but for the tensions that beset Jewish society. Hebrew language was inextricably intertwined with Zi- The shtetl population was exploding, poverty was ram- onism, the movement to settle modern, forward-looking pant, and there were waves of pogroms against Jews, es- Jews in "the promised land," referred to as the Land of pecially in 1881-1882 and thereafter. Those factors cre- Israel (Eretz Israel). The initial goal was the establish-

ated enormous pressures, and future-oriented political ment of a Hebrew community with its own culture and ideologies swept the young generation, pushing in many educational and political structure. This yishtw (settle- different directions. Within this veritable modern Jewish ment) would pave the way for an independent state, the revolution was an outward trend, with millions ofJews state of Israel. The ideology of the language revival was emigrating to the United States, western Europe, and connected to the ideology of Zionism, though not all elsewhere, assimilating to the dominant cultures, learn- Hebrew writers in the Diaspora were Zionists, and many ing the dominant languages, and contributing to general Zionists wrote and read Yiddish. culture and science. And there was an inward mobiliza- The prophet of the revival was the Lithuanian Eliezer tion to build a new Jewish nation, largely modeled upon Ben-Yehuda (1858-1922). An intellectual freethinker and the institutions of European secular culture. devoted student of Hebrew, he emigrated to Jerusalem The latter objective could have been brought about in in 1881 and devoted his life to promoting Hebrew as a the languages of the countries where Jews lived, but the spoken language, coining new words and writing a dic- tionary listing all the words used in Hebrew lit- erature from ancient to modern times. He was a fanatical pioneer of Hebrew as a "mother tongue" and refused to speak any other language with people who could understand Hebrew. But his determination to speak the new language ran up against severe limitations. The Hebrew writer and prominent literary editor Yosef Klauzner, who visited Ben-Yehuda in 1912, reported that Ben- Yehuda communicated with his wife in gestures and signs, for half the time she did not understand the simplest words, and he would not give in and speak Russian or Yiddish. Another story relates that when he wanted his wife to pour him a cup

^ of coffee, he lacked the words for "cup," "saucer," o: I "pour," and "spoon," so he said, "Take that and < do that and bring me that and I'll drink." Indeed,

i it took twenty-five years from Ben-Yehuda's ar- rival in Jerusalem until Hebrew became a spoken I ^ language, the base language of a small society. But The Lithuanian Eliezer Ben-Yehuda, who emigrated to Jerusalem in he was the symbol of the revival of Hebrew. 1881, championed l-iebrew as a spoken language, coining new words A strong, emotionally charged ideology inspired devo- and compiling a comprehensive Hebrew dictionary (or, as the major

Hebrew writers at the time called it, "Ben-Yehuda's word factory"). tion and sacrifice for the revival of Hebrew. But that was not enough. The language revolution required a unique Strongest candidates were Yiddish and Hebrew—there intersection of three complex historical factors in one was a "war of languages" between those two mediums. generation and in the lives and personal experiences of And in the whirlwind of political and worldly options, many individuals. One was the life of the "dead" lan- one option was to revive the language of the Bible in the guage in the Diaspora; the second was the impact of Eu- land of the Bible. For that to succeed, Hebrew would ropean secular culture on the revival of Hebrew litera- have to become the base for the emergence of a new, ture in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries; and the

secular Jewish society and culture, enabling its users to third was the establishment of new social cells (the com- express the totality of twentieth-century experience as munal kibbutzim, Hebrew schools, and the first Hebrew well as their own historical context. It would have to be a city, Tel Aviv) by young people who cut themselves off means to forge a new social identity, irrespective of vari- from the chain of generations. ous countries of origin, languages, and political views. As a dead language, Hebrew was a metaphor for the

"dead" nation, which had lost its independence and honor the 1880s, thousands of pious jews already two thousand years ago. Over the centuries since, the reli- Bylived in Palestine, having gone there to pray and to gious world had provided a library of Hebrew texts; vivid die in the Holy Land. But the movement to revive the meanings of many Hebrew words and phrases, embedded

26 NATURAL HISTORY February 2009 in daily life and spoken '^^2r( rc^ nf language; and the habit of analyzing the meanings of words. Yet Hebrew was perceived as dead because even those who knew the words did not habitually make new sentences or

converse in Hebrew. It was no child's "mother

tongue," and it covered only a limited range of topics. You could not say such mundane things in Hebrew as "train," "pen-

cil," "teapot," "towel," or "culture." Through secular He- "Keep the gate open, we have no other [gate]": Jewish refugees arrive in Ha/fa in June of brew literature and mod- 1946, despite British attempts to restrict immigration under the Mandate for Palestine. ern newspapers, writers tried to enlarge the scope of civilization that can be de- her in Hebrew: "What is the name of these flowers?" To scribed in Hebrew. Translations were an important tool which she replied: "Flowers have no names." to enlarge the vocabulary. In 1859 a Hebrew transla- Indeed, to have names for flowers in a living language tion of The Mysteries of Paris by Eugene Sue appeared in (rather than in a learned dictionary), you need ideological Vilna. In his introduction, the Hebrew poet and gram- youth movements and modern schools that admire nature marian Adam HaCohen Lebenson praised the wonderful and go on outings in nature; you also need botany text- achievement of the Hebrew translation, for "the splendor books, publishers who publish them, and teachers who

of the language is the splendor of her people and in her teach the subject. You need, then, a society that reads honor they too will be honored." He wished that the lan- books and a collective effort to coin names for the flora of

. nature, to guage "might return to her past state and . . . return . . the land. And you need settlements in money to speak again of all the works of the Lord and all His build them, and armed units to defend them. Words come creations in heaven and on earth" until "she speaks about with matching worlds, and one could not be known with-

every wisdom [that is, discipline] and every science and out the other. The whole cluster of life of a society requires every art." The legendary Ben-Yehuda was a direct dis- a language to describe it, and the language needs a world

ciple of that dream. to support it. The whole package sprang up suddenly, car- That endeavor opened Hebrew texts to new thematic ried by idealists who were busy building a nation. domains of knowledge and imagination. Writers free- ly formulated new sentences and new texts in Hebrew In Hebrew, aliya ("ascent") refers to immigra- and mastered new genres in literature, journalism, and tion into the Land of Israel, regarded as a return from thought. A wealth of international words and terms long exile. The First Aliya was a wave of approximately flooded the Hebrew media and were assimilated into the 30,000 immigrants who arrived between 1881 and 1903. language. The renaissance of Hebrew literature and jour- Supported by the French philanthropist and patron of the nalism meant the extension of a religious language into arts Baron Edmond James de Rothschild (1845—1934), the secular, representational, political, and aesthetic do- they built the first Zionist settlements in Palestine, at the mains. Speakers only had to compose new^, oral sentences time a primitive province of the stagnant, harsh, and ty- to absorb and activate that treasure. A bridge was erected rannical Ottoman Empire. The Second Aliya (1903-1914) to link European culture to this biblical language, now came under the impact of renewed pogroms in Russia totally transformed. and the failed Russian Revolution of 1905. About 2.5 But much more was required for Hebrew to become a million Jews went to the West, especially to the United living language. The American Yiddish poet, linguist, and States, and only 35,000 immigrated into Palestine. And, f lexicographer Yehoash (Solomon Blumgarten), already at according to one of them, later the foremost founder of work on his translation of the whole Bible into Yiddish, the modern state of Israel, David Ben-Gurion, 90 per- came to Palestine in 1913. Walking in the settlement of cent of that number left within one year. Of those that Ekron, he saw a girl of fifteen or sixteen sitting in the win- remained, about two hundred workers formed the small, dow of her home, above a beautiful flowerbed. He asked ideologically coherent community in which it was really

February 2009 natural history 27 possible to implement the Hebrew revival. In that way, it construction, where, as Gimnasia Herzliya, it became resembled other avant-garde movements of the twentieth the center of the new city and the cradle of the cultural century in art and in politics. elite. In 1906, the art school Bezalel, and in 1908 the

It was a determined core community around which Hebrew Gimnasia, were opened in Jerusalem. Finally, the Labor Zionist movement crystallized, leading to the in 1913, a great language strike of teachers and students emergence of small, wandering collectives of workers forced all schools of the German "Ezra" organization, in- that later becartie the foundation of the kibbutz move- cluding the Technion, the Haifa Technological Institute, ment. Those early groups were made up of idealists; to switch to Hebrew. Thus, the educational network was mostly unmarried men, separated from their parents' conquered for the new language. world in Europe, abandoning the language, stories, and Among the obstacles, however, was that as a written beliefs of their grandparents, half starving, eating the bit- language Hebrew had become one-sided, focused on ter olives, singing and arguing ideology into the night. a limited range of religious topics. Words for every- When they adopted the slogan, "Our world stands on day things were only incidentally preserved in texts. three things: on Hebrew land, on Hebrew work, and on Through research these were identified and compiled, the Hebrew language," the first nucleus of a Hebrew- restoring or adapting vocabulary to modern use. Just speaking society was established. finding names for the flowers proved to be no simple A parallel force was the founding of Tel Aviv in 1909, task. At first the rose was named shoshaiia as in the Song "the first Jewish city in two thousand years." All govern- of Songs. But further research into biblical botany and ment institutions, schools, and banks were, in principle, the language of old texts changed the decision: vered conducted in Hebrew. In 1905 the first Hebrew high became a rose and shoshana, a lily! The confusion per-

school had been founded in Jaffa; four years later it was sists to this day, and people continue to buy a dozen moved to Theodore Herzl Street in a Tel Aviv still under shoshaniin, as well as vmdim. Biblical words and roots had to be adapted to the new world. Thus hashmal in modern Hebrew means "electricity." The word—a strange one, with four con- sonants instead of the regular three —appeared only in one incident in the Bible, in the prophet Ezekiel's "Vi- sion of the Divine Glory." At best, however, the Bible

is a limited resource, and various ways of expanding the vocabulary developed. For example, Ben-Yehuda's sakhraklwk ("long-distance conversation") was defeated by the irresistible telefon, but the verb forms follow He- brew grammar rules by rearranging the same four con-

sonants (with /turned into p): letalpeii ("to call"), til- panti ("I called"), talpen ("Call!"). Purists might object, but Hebrew's ability to engulf and transform foreign words was a sign of life. There was also the question of pronunciation. The people actively reviving Hebrew were Yiddish-speaking Central and Eastern European Jews, otherwise known as Ashkenazim. But they had turned their backs on their parents' shtetl world. For the new spoken Hebrew they looked to the Sephardic dialect, believed to preserve a more authentic, precise rendering of ancient Hebrew.

Associated with the glories of Spanish Jewry, it also was more prestigious. (It had the advantages, too, of being more inclusive of non-Ashkenazi Jews and of sidestep- ping rivalries between various Ashkenazi subdialects.) In fact, neither ultimately prevailed. Israeli Hebrew combines a simplified range of Ashkenazi consonants and Sephardic vowels. And the Sephardic stress on the last syllable, preferred for Hebrew words, is comple- mented by the Ashkenazi stress on the penultimate syl- lable for imported words, slang, even names (DAvid and SAra, in contrast to the Sephardic daVID and saRA).

28 NATUB-AL HISTORY February 2009 I

In 1918, the British army had conquered the land, and in 1922, the League of Nations established the British Man- date for Palestine. Winston Churchill, the British Colo- nial Secretary at the time, issued the following statement:

During the last two or three generations the Jews have recreated in Palestine a community now numbering 80,000, [that] has its own political organs; an elected assembly for the direction of its domestic concerns; elected councils in the towns; and an organization for

the control of its schools. ... Its business is conducted in Hebrew as a vernacular language, and a Hebrew press

serves its needs. . . . This community, then, with its

town and country population, its political, religious,

and social organizations, its own language, its own cus-

toms, its own life, has in fact "national" characteristics.

That was an act of formal acceptance of the scattered Jewish communities in Palestine as a secular nation and

Hebrew as its official language.

Children listen to a story at Kibbutz Yakum ("(Itj will arise"), The enduring paradox of the revival of the Hebrew established in 1947 near Netanya. language lies in the tension between the language of the Bible and the requirements of a modern language for an None of it was easy. As Shlomo Lavi, who came advanced society, interconnected with the European and with the Second Aliya and later became one of the American world. The revival started in Hebrew literature founders of the first Kibbutz Ein Harod in 1921, recalled, of the Haskalah (Enlightenment) in the nineteenth cen-

"It cannot be appreciated how much it costs a man to go tury. The writers of the Haskalah admired the beautiful from speaking one language to another and especially Bible above all other historical layers of Hebrew (notably to a language that is not yet a spoken language. How the ugly and "boring" Talmud). But they were no Zion- much breaking of the will it takes. And how many tor- ists in the political sense, whereas those who went to live ments of the soul that wants to speak and has something in the land of the Bible in the twentieth century needed to say—and is mute and stammering." And the spiritual to enlarge the language to adapt it to the needs of mod- leader of the labor movement, Berl Katznelson, who read ern media, literature, and science. A count of words used a great deal of Hebrew literature, reminisced: "In the in an editorial of the prestigious newspaper HaAretz, for first days, I had a hard time with Hebrew. . . . When I example, shows that only 5 percent were biblical He- came to Eretz-Israel, I couldn't make a natural sentence brew, preserving both the biblical form and meaning. in Hebrew and I didn't want to talk a foreign language. For a national identity in the modern age, you also need

I decided I wouldn't utter a foreign word. And for ten the other 95 percent. Against all odds, the revived He- days, I didn't speak at all; when I was forced to answer— brew flowered into a rich language and literature that would reply with some Biblical verse close to the issue." can serve for anything from stream-of-consciousness fic- Nevertheless, in a short time he became one of the finest tion to nuclear physics, and that is grounded in the spo- essayists in modern Hebrew. ken language of childhood. Rachel Katznelson, a discerning literary critic who was later the editor of the socialist women's monthly Dvar Ha-Poelet ("the word of the working woman"), wrote: "I Author of Language in Time of Revolution realized the revolutionary nature of Hebrew literature as (University of California Press, 1993), opposed to Yiddish. . . . We had to betray Yiddish even Benjamin Harshav (formeriy Hrushovski) IS a professor Literature and though we paid for this as for any betrayal. . . . The revolu- of Comparative of Hebrew Language and Literature at Yale tion, the revolt of our generation against itself—we found University. Born in Vilna (Vilnius) in 192ti, it in Hebrew literature" ("Language Insomnia," 1918). he fought in the Israeli War of Indepen-

The impact of Hebrew literature on the pioneers was de- dence in 1948. Harshav is a recipient of the EMET (Art, Science, cisive. During World War I, the Jews of Tel Aviv were Culture) Prize, the highest Israeli award for lifetime achievement fields. literary theory. Hebrew expelled by the Turks, most leaving for Egypt, and when in those He has published widely on and Yiddish literature, and the work of Marc Chagall. they returned they formed the leadership of the new Jew- ish national entity. One requirement to be a representative Web links related to this article can be found at v\/ww.naturalhistoryrTiag.corr> in the Elected Assembly was the ability to speak Hebrew.

February 2009 n.^tuR-AL historv 29 — :—

REVIEW

Could an Ant Colony Read This Book?

By Robert R, Dunn

N — x~/ ^-s VN N/'/N ^T N ^ ^*!1

n biology one can spend a That said, the two have led coauthored another major book, lifetime studying an ob- very different lives as scientists. The Superorganism, which breathes scure sliver of life —be it Holldobler has remained doggedly new life into a notion that intrigued fish ovaries, flea legs, or focused on ants, nearly always ex- scientists before World War I: that a

the mites that live in the nostrils of perimentally. He has revealed the colony of social insects is analogous

birds. It's often that obsessive focus intricacies of ant communication to an individual. The concept of the that makes broader truths come and how that communication superorganism—which compares a clear. Edward O. Wilson and Bert whether by scent, touch, or sound colony's members to a body's cells

Holldobler [above, right and left] ex- underlies cooperative behavior. and sometimes its nest to the body's emplify that peculiar truism. They Wilson, instead, has used a world- skeleton—fell out of favor as re- met in 1969 when Wilson was a view developed from his study of search increasingly focused on the forty-year-old professor at Harvard ants to do foundational and often genes of individuals. Holldobler and University and Holldobler, thirty- controversial work in broader areas. Wilson, building on new insights three, had come from Frankfurt, He popularized the term sociobiology into the evolution and workings

Germany, to stay a year as a visiting and literally wrote the book on the of insect societies, seek to bring it

scholar. Wilson was already well evolution of human social behav- back. To them, "superorganism" is

known for his studies of chemical ior (two books, in fact: Sockibwlogy more than a metaphor; it is a unit in communication and biogeography. The New Synthesis, 1975, and On the hierarchy of biological organiza- Holldobler was just beginning his Human Nature, 1978—the latter also tion, falling somewhere between an work as a behavioral ecologist. a Pulitzer Prize winner). At the time, ecosystem and an individual. And,

They did not know it, but they the idea that genes controlled our they argue, it is the most useful level were about to forge an enduring actions sparked outrage. In his 1984 of biological organization at which collaboration, "built" (in Wilson's book Biophiha, Wilson refined and to examine how pieces are as- words) "upon a close friendship and built on the hypothesis that we hu- sembled to make a whole—be it an a common lifelong commitment to mans have an inherent fondness for association of bacteria, a single crea- the study of ants." Together they nature, rooted in our genes. But with ture, or a whole society—as well as would write tens of papers and advancing age, Wilson too has come to understand what holds all organ- three books, among them a Pulitzer back to the ants: he even has a novel isms together, even when the pieces Prize winner: their epic 700-page forthcoming that features them. struggle toward independent goals. treatise, The Ants (1990). Now Holldobler and Wilson have In the history of life, there have

30 NATURAL HISTORY February 2009 •*.,' Vn

cstamei ristian?

essiaK? ospe

Ull of the l^bovc.

Learn more about me cultural and political events tnat snapea tne personal lives of tnose living in tne region in ana around. Jerusalem more tkan 2,000 years ago.

View me earliest known version ot tne story ot Cnrist's i>irtn as contained in tne oldest known copy or tne New Testament Book or Luke. Examine an ancient manuscript containing the propnetic Old Testament Book or Isaian—one of tne original Dead Sea Scrolls found at Qumran. Witness history first nand and be

among tne first to view a nost of otner authentic artifacts from this fascinating time and place, one of tne world's most important and influential cultural melting pots. ^ TfiB,BlRTH OP CHRISTIANITY ISH STORY

For tickets,visit hmns.org or call 713-639-4629.

This exhihitUm was organized by the Houston Museum of TSlatural Science, The Hebrew Vniversity of Jerusalem and.

Rice University in cooperation tuit/r the Dead Sea Scrolls Foundation. .

Underwritten by: Glen Rosenbaum The Stanford and Joan Alexander Foundation Albert and Ethel Herzstein Charitable Foundation

Nathan J. Klein Fund Stein Family/Triple S Steel Supply Vinson & Elkins LLP Weatherford International Ltd. David and Bonnie We'ekley %\^J9 How can a superorganism

function, when it

been only a few occasions when depends upon closest relatives, while still compet- separate individuals have come to- ing with other group members for gether to cooperate and, in doing tiie combined the right to pass on the most genes. so, have become so well integrated As societies grow larger and more that we now recognize them as a operation of tiny, complex, however, competition single organism. Those include the among colonies grows fiercer, and origin of cells with mitochondria, sliort-lived minds? as a consequence, group selection from an early symbiosis between begins to act. It is at this stage that two different species of bacteria; gether are related, a model referred to Holldobler sees insect societies as plant cells, which arose when a eu- as "kin selection" comes into play. If making the transition to super- karyotic cell (a cell with a nucleus) success in evolution revolves around organisms: conflict among indi-

incorporated a photosynthetic bac- passing on your genes, you should viduals is restricted, workers never terium, the grandmama of all chlo- be willing to die for, maybe not one, reproduce, and a colony begins to roplasts; and multicellular creatures but two brothers, because, on aver- seem more and more like a body. in general, which have arisen mul- age, each shares half your genes. Wilson, taking a more extreme

tiple times. To those, Holldobler That is the traditional view of position, has proposed a model that and Wilson would add the more so- ho'w sociality has evolved. But both emphasizes group selection even for phisticated colonies of social insects Holldobler and Wilson argue that nascent colonies. (leaf-cutter ants, some termites, group selection (in addition to in- Such group selection models are

honeybees, and the like). dividual selection) is a crucial com- controversial. Scientists who focus ponent of evolution in insect soci- on genes—most vocal among them '^^ "The authors begin their new eties. In group-selection models, Richard Dawkins, author of Tlie

'*' '*'» I book by considering the evolution favors the groups whose Selfish Gene—argue that selection on origins of societies. In doing so they members cooperate more effective- the gene is the real driving force be-

set out to explain why the workers of ly, regardless of whether such co- hind selection on the individual, let many species of ants, bees, wasps, and operation helps a given individual alone the group. This clash of views

termites give up reproduction, ei- (or that individual's kin) reproduce. is inherently compelling, perhaps in ther partially or completely, to work The two colleagues, however, hold part because the question of why in- for their overbearing mother. The somewhat different views. dividuals cooperate seems so central

simplest model of natural selection is Holldobler sees the evolution of to our own daily struggles. that genes are carried by mdividual insect societies as proceeding along Holldobler and Wilson took five organisms, and that heritable genes stepping stones. In a paper writ- years to write The Superorganism—in belonging to the individuals that are ten jointly with the evolutionary part, one suspects, because they have more successful at surviving and re- biologist Hudson Kern Reeve, of attempted, as far as possible, to rec-

producing will proliferate. But when Cornell University, he has stated oncile tlieir differing opinions and

the costs of going it alone are great that individual insects in nascent to present a united front. Crucially, and individuals living or working to- societies only cooperate with their Continued on page 34

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APR: vorioble 1 Cosh APR: •'Balance Tronster APR is 0% until the last day of the billing period ending during Februory 2010; then the standard purchase APR applies. Standard purchase 3.99%. fin, Cash transaction fee: 3%, min. 23,99%, If you are late making o poymeni or your account is overlimil twice, we may increase your APRs to a Defoult Rate of up to 30,99%. Min. chg.: $.50. APRs (such as special balance tronsfer and purchose APRsI prior lo $5 Balance transfer tee: 3%. Roles as of November 1 , 2008. We apply poymenis to balances with low introductory/special bolonces with standard APRs, Offer valid for new cardmembers only ©2008 Discover Bank, Member FDIC The Superorganism: The Beauty, U.S. REVIEW Elegance, and Strangeness of Insect Societies Continuedfrom page 32 By Bert Holldobler and Edward 0. Wilson they agree that once societ- Silver W.W. Norton, 2008; $55.00 ies reach a sufficient level of sophistication, they operate Eagle like organisms, becoming Ants was published. Twenty years the primary targets on which selec- ago it would have been reasonable tion acts, with the individual ants to talk about a typical ant colony in almost as limited in their autonomy which a single queen mates once and as a body's cells. produces eggs, the colony competes against all neighbors, and the fertile

%-^il> ime will tell whether the offspring fly to mate and start new

I broader1: community of colonies. No more. We now know of scientists agrees with the views ex- parthenogenetic ant species (in which pressed in The Snperoganism. Perhaps males are unnecessary for reproduc- Holldobler and Wilson's greater tion); ant species that have no territo-

contribution, though, is their survey rial boundaries among colonies; ant of the many vi'ays that component species in which all of the workers individuals make highly evolved lay eggs; ant species in which many societies work efficiently, through tens of queens but no workers lay simple behaviors governed by a eggs; species that have no workers at hierarchy of rules—and the genes all; and species whose queens mate regulating those rules. How, in many times. Using the same basic

practice, does a superorganism func- parts, ants do it many ways.

tion, when it depends upon "the In showing how much we have combined operation of tiny and learned about the diversity of ant so- short-lived minds"? cieties, Holldobler and Wilson also, Be one of the first to own America's Much of what prevents individual inadvertently, show something else: 2009 1-oz. silver eagle BU — not social insects from going their merry how much we owe to their research. sold to the public by the U.S. Mint. ways, and enables the most sophisti- It is easy to think, for example, that Introduced in 1986, it contains a cated societies to be so well integrat- the fact that ants lay pheromone trails full troy ounce of pure silver. It's ed, involves communication and the to attract each other to food has al- the largest U.S. silver dollar in division of labor. Within families ways been common knowledge. But

American minting history and such as that of the ants, Formicidae, it was worked out in large part by enormously popular with collectors. social insects vary relatively little in Holldobler and Wilson, as was a great

John Mercanti adapted the heraldic their morphologies (that is why any deal else. Like their subjects, the two eagle and 13 stars from early U.S. three-year-old can learn to identify communicated, "grubbing around silver dollars — and re-introduced "an ant"). And much of the diversity and talking back and forth." They arrows in the eagle's talons, in life histories, the basic ways of used division of labor (Holldobler balanced by an olive branch. The living, among species can be attrib- chasing down the mechanisms, "Walking Liberty" design was uted simply to differences in chemi- Wilson thinking more broadly, inte- adapted in larger form from the cal communication, caste systems, grating). Their successes are also due 1916-1947 U.S. circulating silver and perhaps also mutualisms—insect to their mutual respect as friends, and half dollar — often called the most societies' interdependencies with even to a bond of kinship. Wilson beautiful American silver coin other partner species. has called Holldobler the younger design of the century. Brilliant Although their book's thesis po- brother he never had. They share no Uncirculated. $16.95 each postpaid tentially pertains to all social organ- genes, but have done much for each (#43088). Limit 5 per household. isms, not just insects, Holldobler other—and for the rest of us. Price subject to change due to and Wilson focus on ants, with bees Robert R. Dunn is an ecologist in t}\e relegated to a supporting role and market conditions. ABSOLUTELY Department of Biology at North Carolina only an occasional cameo by a wasp NO UNORDERED COINS SENT. State University in Raleigh. His first or termite. 30-day no-risk home examination. Some of the stories are book, Every Living Thing: Man's International Coins & Currency already familiar, yet it is clear that Obsessive Quest to Catalog Life, dramatically more is now known from Nanobacteria to New Monkeys, 62 Ridge St., Dept. 4953 about ants, particularly about varia- was recently published by Harper Montpelier, VT 05602 tion among species, than when The Collins /Smithsonian. 1-800-451-4463 Order at y.ww.iccoin.net (many more great deals) 149531 34 NATURAL HISTORY February 2009 . .

The History of Ancient Egypt No civilization has so amazed us as ancient Egypt. Pyra- The History of Ancient Egypt Taught Professor Bob Brier, Long Island University mids, mummies, hieroglyphics—early Egyptian history is by Lecture Titles undeniably captivating. Now, investigate the details of this 1 Introduction 25. The End of Dynasty XVlll

enthralling culture in The History of Ancient Egypt. 2. Prehistoric Egypt 26. Mummification —How We Know

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CUM PiofEnoiJ, Gttu Cdiuhi, C«ta Vau,i Priority Code: 32198 CuuLLvrtm.' BOOKSHELF BY LAURENCE A, MARSCHALL

bombs and crop-duster planes filled mosphere that animals needed to live with plague-infected fleas were tested (oxygen); his Dutch contemporary Six-Legged "successfully" in China. Jan Ingenhousz figured out that they Soldiers: Undoubtedly many world super- could do so only in sunlight. In 1804, powers, especially the United States Swiss scientist Nicolas-Theodore de Using Insects as Weapons of War and its former rival the Soviet Saussure grasped that plants were by Jeffrey A. Lockwood Union, have mounted vigorous re- making food in the process. But the Oxford University Press, 2009; search in the use of insects as vectors precise mechanism of that transfor- S27.95 for both human and agricultural mation wasn't uncovered until the disease. Documentation of modern twentieth century, when, using newly Humans, according to Aristotle, are military entomology, however, is discovered radioisotopes, scientists the only political animals, but hard to come by. Thus much of the were first able to tag and trace atoms

that hasn't stopped insects from second half of this book is rife with of carbon as they shuttled through the fighting alongside us in military claims and counterclaims. Did the metabolic pathways of plants. conflicts worldwide since the dawn United States deploy plague-bear- Readers outside the biochemical of civilization. The ancient Mayans, ing insects in Korea or drop citrus- community are unlikely to recog- more than 4,500 years ago, filled killing aphids on Castro's Cuba? nize the names of the scientists who gourds with stinging insects to harass Regardless of whether any of these carried out this research—Andrew would-be attackers. In a.d. 908 de- charges are provable, it's clear from Benson, Robin Hill, and Martin fenders of Chester, England, collect- this chilling account that insect Kamen, to name a few. But, as

ed all available beehives and tossed warfare is, even more than in the Morton makes clear through ac- them into tunnels dug by invaders, past, a formidable danger. "The pro- counts of intellectual wrangling, successfully repulsing a hostile army boscis," as Lockwood grimly quips, their insights were as significant

of Danes and Norwegians. is still "mightier than the sword." to our understanding of the well- According to entomologist and sci- springs of life as the discovery of ence writer Jeffrey A. Lockwood of the structure of DNA. If Watson the University of Wyoming, who has and Crick are better known to the

combed the literature of ancient and public, perhaps it is because pho- modern warfare, military leaders have Eating the Surt^i, tosynthesis can't be summarized as ignored insects at their own peril. iconically as the double helix. How Plants Power the Planet Some infestations were relatively Plants are, of course, the reason Oliver :.a^-«9 passive: mosquitoes carrying yellow by Morton why ours is the only planet in the so- fever successfully defended North Harper Collins, 2008; lar system with an oxygen-rich atmo- America against Napoleonic incur- $28.95 sphere. Morton takes us back a couple sions; during the Russian Revolution, of billion years to when photosyn- typhus-bearing lice killed millions of All hail the chloroplasts! Oliver thetic bacteria opened the way for the civilians and combatants, prompting Morton loves those tiny organ- profusion of life today. He convinces Vladimir Lenin to declare that "either elles, and so should we, for our lives us that chloroplasts may be small, socialism will defeat the louse, or the and our livelihoods depend on their but as major consumers ot sunlight louse will defeat socialism." diligent work in taking sunlight and carbon dioxide, they play a cru-

By the mid-twentieth century, and turning it into chemical energy. cial role in Earth's energy balance. the louse had lost. For that matter, The first third of this often poetic As we face the challenges of global the impact of all diseases on troops study of photosynthesis by journal- warming and dwindling fossil-fuel

in the field lessened as the sciences ist Morton is a "science procedural," reserves, an understanding of those ot epidemiology and entomology in the spirit ofJohn McPhee's Basin green organelles may be the key to a were incorporated into the practice and Range, focusing on the investi- sunny future for us all. of military hygiene. But Lockwood's gators who have unlocked the se-

arch-villain is General Ishii Shiro, crets of photosynthesis. Laurence A. Marschall is W.K.T. who headed a vast Japanese biologi- As early as the late 1700s, English Sahm Professor of Physics at Gettysburg cal-warfare effort called Unit 731 minister and teacher Joseph Priestley College in Pennsylvania, and coauthor, during World War II. General Ishii 's had advanced the idea that plants took with Stephen P. Maran, q/' Galileo's New agency found numerous ways to something from the air (which we Universe: The Revolution in Our Un- infest opposing populations with dis- now know as carbon dioxide) and derstanding of the Cosmos, pnblished by ease-carrying insects. For instance, put something else back into the at- BenBella Books.

36 NATURAL HISTORY February 2009 where a common thread just may be the spark of inspiration.

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Grab life. Immerse yourself in a da)

1-866-851-0338 I your free travel packet, call toll-free or visit arizo.naguide.com. THIS LAND BY ROBERT H. MOHLENBROCK Rocket Land

Wildlife finds a haven where space shuttles fly.

Along Florida's eastern coastline a Island, whose name is now ap- string of peninsulas and islands plied to the entire peninsula. Shell intercedes between the Atlantic middens—the accumulated trash Manatee Ocean and a succession of lagoons, from ancient meals—show that estuaries, and waterways. Among Native Americans made regular use it consisted largely of salt marsh, a

those barrier lands is a fifty-mile- of the locale's resources as long as habitat whose rich wildlife included long peninsula that extends from nine thousand years ago. Would-be a daunting population of mosqui- the mainland near Titusville to Spanish colonizers first landed there toes. In 1957, when my family and

the south-southeast, sheltering the around 1565, but were driven away I began making wintertime treks to northern end of a stretch of wa- by the local inhabitants. During the Florida from Illinois, we found little ter known as Indian River. The nineteenth century, citrus grow- reason to venture off U.S. Highway

peninsula encompasses what was ers and a trickle of homesteaders 1 as we passed through Titusville. once a separate island, Merritt gained a foothold in the area, but Things quickly changed, how-

Birds convening in Merritt Island salt marsh include great egret, snowy egret, wood stork, and white ibis.

Salt marsh Open water har- species of cordgrasses are up dozens of short, slender seaside goldenrod, perennial 00 bors fish and shrimp preyed punctuated by such ferns as stems called pneumatophores salt-marsh aster, sea oxeye, upon by long-legged wading the six-foot or taller giant around their base for the bushy bluestem, and limewa- birds, belted kingfishers, and leather fern and the smaller same purpose; and white ter brookweed. other avian species. Shore- swamp fern. Red, white, and mangroves, which may also birds find ample meals buried black mangroves are com- produce a few pneumato- Palm and oak hammock in mudflats: worms, crabs, mon. Red mangroves are the phores, can be recognized Hammocks are forested < clams, and snails. Vegetation ones with large prop roots, from the pair of minute areas that occur on slightly X must tolerate salt water to structures that circulate air to bumps, called salt glands, on raised land adjacent to salt survive. Continuous stands of underground and underwater each leaf stalk. Wildflowers marshes. Palm hammock, needlegrass rush and several roots; black mangroves send bordering the marsh include lower than the oak in eleva-

38 NATURAL HISTORY February 2009 —

Tallahassee c; O

Refuge Visitor facility known as water levels and salinity in the ever. The now Information -..Center Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, impoundments, and even eliminat- ii, on an outer barrier island just to the ing some of the dikes, to restore

east of Merritt Island, was becom- salt marsh and benefit wildlife. In John F. Kennedy Space Center ing too small to accommodate the the meantime, though, the suppres- nation's burgeoning space program. sion of fire —a natural part of the In 1963 the federal government ecosystem—was allowing several the purchase of nearly 220 species of scrub oaks, normally completed Cape Canaveral square miles of land, dune, water, shrub-size, to grow into trees on Cape Canaveral and marsh. The once separate part the higher, drier areas. Scrubland Air Station of Merritt Island was joined to the habitat, home to three threatened ATLANTIC rest of the peninsula as the National species the scrub jay, gopher , — miles OCEAN Aeronautics and Space Administra- tortoise, and eastern indigo snake Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge boundary tion began building what is now the was giving way to thicketed humps, Restricted access F. Kennedy Space Center. called hammocks, of palm and oak. John I Shared with Canaveral National Seashore Only a modest amount of land was Park biologists now compensate actually needed for launch pads and by cutting back some of the over- VISITOR INFORMATION Merritt island National Wiidiife Refuge other facilities; the rest was set aside growth and setting controlled fires. P.O. Box 2683 as a buffer zone. The entire tract is First-time visitors should begin Titusvilie.FL 32781 designated the Merritt Island Na- their journey at the Visitor Informa- 321-861-0667 tional Wildlife Refuge, with public tion Center off State Route 402. www.fws.gov/merrittisiand access to about half the area—and A short orientation trail is avail- more around the time of shuttle able behind the visitor center. The launches and landings—restricted for seven-mile Black Point Wildlife spoonbills, wood storks, anhingas, reasons of safety and security. A large Drive through restored salt marsh is white and glossy ibises, and the

portion is also shared with Canaveral also a must. Taking the drive for the sassy-looking belted kingfishers, not

National Seashore. dozenth time, I saw great blue herons, to mention avocets, skimmers, stilts, tricolored herons, great egrets, red- and many kinds of ducks and gulls. n developing the space center, the dish egrets, snowy egrets, roseate Elsewhere, motorists can reach a place government built dikes so that to spot manatees.

mudflats in and around the salt marsh Hikers may follow a two-mile could be flooded during mosquito- loop through a palm hammock, a breeding season. This cut down on half-mile trail through an oak ham- the mosquitoes, but unfortunately mock, and a mile-long loop in the contributed to pushing the dusky sea- Florida scrub. For the more ambi- side sparrow (which lived in only one tious, the five-mile Cruickshank

other area besides the salt marsh) into Trail, a loop with its trailhead mid- extinction. Conservation measures way along the Black Point Wildlife failed to save the bird. Drive, takes you through salt marsh. While continuing to control

mosquitoes, in 1969 the U.S. Fish Robert H. Mohlenbrock is a distin- and Wildlife Service, which man- guished professor emeritus ofplant biology at ages the refuge, began regulating Southern Illinois University Carbondale.

tion, with a wetter understo- oak hammock, which has grape hang heavily from and herbs. If hiking here,

ry, is dominated by cabbage large specimens of live oak some of the larger trees. watch out for eastern dia- palmetto. Among the other as well as laurel oak, though mondback rattlesnakes. trees are American elm, cabbage palmettos are com- Pine flatwoods Slash pines laurel oak, red maple, and mon here as well. Among dominate this flat terrain, Florida scrub Saw palmetto, twinberry—a tropical tree the other trees are common with Chapman oak present wax myrtle, and bush-size with reddish-brown mottled persimmon, swamp bay, and where flatwoods transition myrtle oak and sand live bark that is in the same fam- a couple of subtropical trees to scrub. The understory in- oak dominate this drier, ily as eucalyptus. On slightly with magnolia-like leaves cludes fetterbush, gallberry open habitat. Prickly vines higher and drier ground, known as myrsine and marl- holly, saw palmetto, wax of several species known as palm hammock shades into berry. Huge vines of frost myrtle, and other shrubs greenbriers abound.

February 2009 NATURAL HISTORY 39 3

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MONTGOMERY COUNTY California birding, too) hiking, boating, golfing, Caribbean to places usually only accessible by Experience transportation history along the C&O casinos, museums. private yacht. Spectacular itineraries, 100 guests. Canal and the National Capital Trolley Museum. 14. CANODROS So many things to do. MARKET CLASSIFIED Canodros offers up-scale services in Ecuador 29. ST. MARY'S COUNTY v/ith the Galapagos Explorer II. Enriching Potomac River lighthouses, Chesapeake Bay MATH TUTOR DVD. COM experience of the culture and natural history. seafood, and maritime history. Cozy inns, 877-MATH-DVD • www.mathtutordvd.com waterside dining and fantastic festivals. 1 5. VOYAGES OF DISCOVERY ROMFAB Voyages of Discovery takes you to Antarctica, 30. WORCESTER COUNTY 818-504-6450 • www.fastexercise.com Africa, Northern Europe and the Mediterranean Maryland's only seaside. Discover Assateague SCIENCE CONNECTION on mv Discovery. Island National Seashore. Kayak, birdwatch, www.sciconnect.com cycle, golf and explore our historic towns. ISKYLOG BY JOE RAO

or those of us who live in the north- noted, and in 1803 William Herschel, have nested orbits and whirl around Fern latitudes, Castor and Pollux, the German-born British astronomer a shared center of gravity, called the the brightest stars of Gemini—the and composer, demonstrated that they barycenter, in a matter of days. And Twins—are nearly overhead around revolve around each other. It takes then, off to the south of Castor A and

10 P.M. local time on February 1, and Castor A and B about 445 years to B lies Castor C, a much dimmer orb that (based on observations so far) ap- pears to be orbiting the main double pair in a 14,000-year cycle. By now you may have guessed that Castor

C is also a double star, Ca and Cb. Those two—both red dwarfs—take less than twenty hours to revolve around their barycenter. Phil Batchelor, a computer pro- grammer and computer graphics artist based in New Zealand, has modeled the Castor system in 3-D using the space simulator Celestia. Images of the star orbits [illustration

at left] are based on snapshots from his simulation. (Web links enabling readers to explore the simulation for themselves are posted at www. naturalhistorymag.com.) To help visualize this remarkable sextuplet Castor system viewed from Earth (center and inset top right), with orbits of double stars A, B, and C viewed from above stellar family, though, I like to pic- ture three waltzing couples in a gi- around 8 p.m. by month's end. The make the full circuit as they follow ant ballroom. Two of the couples, two stars were named in antiquity for overlapping elliptical orbits. A and B, whirl within a few feet the mythical sons of Leda, but in 1678 But there's more! Both A and B of each other in one corner of the the Italian astronomer Giovanni Do- themselves turn out to be doubles, dance floor, while the third pair, menico Cassini saw through an early which we can tell by the spectro- C, circles slowly around the edge telescope that one of them, Castor, graphic Doppler effect, even though of the room. was actually two stars, a fact rediscov- their respective components—^Aa Joe Rao is a broadcast meteorologist and ered in 1718. Between 1719 and 1759, and Ab, Ba and Bb—are too close an associate and lecturer at the Hayden a change in angle between those two together to be separated optically. Planetarium in New York City stars, dubbed Castor A and B, was In each of those two pairs, the stars (www.haydenplanetarium.orgj

Answers to Endpaper Crossword FEBRUARY NIGHTS OUT larger (though thinner) as the planet ap- 3" — 3" s 3 N 3 N a 3 3 s V V 3 H y N proaches Earth, is easy to see in a clear 2 The waxes to first quarter at Moon 1 3 A 1 S V 3 H 1 d I, 3 N n V N 3 sky even before sunset. 1 1 ^... 6:13 P.M. eastern standard time (EST). 3 1 a V 1 i V d y H i n a i AA 3 N V d N H S 1 1 s tf 1 S 3 V 1 22 Just before sunrise, seek out the slen- 1,. ^. ^H 0_ 9 The IVloon becomes full at 9:49 a.m. A 3 i V N ^^^^In 0,, ^..|i AA J~^^^^l der sliver of an old crescent Moon, low ^1 N_, J,.. a HI 1 V M^ ^^|n y 3 1 i V d_ EST. Viewers in the far west can see it 3,, w near the east-southeast horizon. Mercury a 1 =..:^ d s d 0,, N 1 1 a„ 0_ ' H i__ undergo a penumbral eclipse: at 6:38 a.m. ^^^^' 1 ^ V w_ and Jupiter are to the Moon's lower left. 3 a N 3^ ^r^>4 3 ^..^ d v~^^^^Hn Pacific Standard the Moon's Time upper 3 N vT^^I^ V 3 i.HM° « o i d N^ s I l^ 24 Jupiter and Mercury in a close N 1 M " tf a s 3 " V 3 a 1 V rim should appear shaded. engage 1,, "PM II conjunction about a half hour before 1 3 1 n 1^; y 3 ^..H" =w N V bN a 3 9^ I 11 The gibbous Moon rises early this ^^HN v^ A H,'^3 " L, " V H 1 ^__ 3 1 1 3 a_^ sunrise, low in the east-southeast. In the 1 _ 3 1 D IV ^.."J 3 a S TT^^^y N evening; the bright, yellowish-white "star" 3. 'M" '., p.m. is evening at 8:35 EST, the Moon new. w V 1 s^ N V d^^^^^S n H.gs V '.' 0_^ 0_ hovering about 8 degrees above it and N 3 A 3 S 3 W 1 3 n s N V S v^^^^^^H slightly to its left is Saturn. 27 Venus and the crescent Moon make a i V I,. i 3 1 y V 3 3^ V V a V s s V, . 0.. spectacular conjunction from before sun- ^^^^|l N 3 S 3 iF^^^^gi X 0, ' V 3 i 16 The Moon wanes to last quarter at set into the depths of darkness. Venus 3 1 d d l^^ 3 1 A y 3 S V a 9 S v^ 4:37 P.M. EST S 1 a y y 3 N V 1 1 1 M 1_ N 1 a V a,, sits about 1.5 degrees above and to the "1 "1 1 V 3 a„ 3 N n 1 N 1 3 V V u i_ ^ 19 Venus, its crescent having grown right of the Moon. Don't miss it! 3 S d_ V A V y n s^ N 1 9 N 3 A 3 s^ 1 1 1 ^ _

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'S^th & Central Amer Travel S^jgcialists J 800-344-6118 adventure-life.com At the Museum WNAnv.amnh.org American Museum 5 Natural History ^ Of Poets and Presidents AMNH celebrates African-American Heritage Month

When Barack Obama accept- I its title from Hughes' poem, ed the Democratic nomi- g was produced on Broadway and nation last August, he recalled ? won the 1959 New York Drama an event years earlier on the n Critics' Circle Award for Best 45 o Mall before the Lincoln Memo- c American Play, both firsts for an rial, when people came "to hear a o African-American woman. The young preacher from Georgia." It play was inspired by the Hans- was August 1963, and the Rev. Dr. 1 berry family's legal battle against

Martin Luther King, ]r., delivered racially segregated housing laws his historic "I Have a Dream" S in Chicago.) speech at the end of his March on i Langston Hughes, like Presi-

Washington for Jobs and Freedom. 1 dent Obama, had roots in the

"The men and women who g Midwest and came to New York o gathered there could have heard s to Study at Columbia University. to many things," Obama said. "They I While there, he gravitated Har- could have heard words of anger 1 lem, where he heard the blues, o and discord. They could have been T jazz, and gospel music critics say the his told to succumb to the fear and I influenced rhythms of frustrations of so many dreams ^ poetry. This period of the 1920s deferred. But what the people S came to be known as the Harlem heard instead—people of every Renaissance, a flourishing of creed and color, from every walk African-American art, music, of life—is that, in America, our literature, and dance that rever-

• Duke Ellington and his orclhestra in the 1930s , . . .1 j destiny is inextricably linked, that berates to this day. together our dreams can be one." The Museum will revisit this rich literary and musical

It didn't take long for those in the know to pick up on the legacy in Harlem Serenade: A Moment In Time, an afternoon phrase "so many dreams deferred" and its homage to the late of performances and presentations Saturday, February 21, poet Langston Hughes. It was Hughes who wrote the now- in the Museum's Kaufmann and Linder Theaters. Free legendary lines, "What happens to a dream deferred? Does it with admission, the program includes dance, poetry, and dry up like a raisin in the sun?. ..Maybe it just sags like a heavy selected film clips. Participants can experience the dynamic load. Or does it explode?" sounds of the National Jazz Museum in Harlem's All-Star As the American Museum of Natural History marks Orchestra; see a special performance by some of the origi- African-American Heritage Month on February 21, only nal Cotton Club Dancers and young dancers carrying on weeks after Barack Obama's inauguration as the first the tradition; and, of course, hear the poetry of Langston African-American President of the United States, perhaps Hughes, who has been called the poet laureate of Harlem. the most poignant tribute is the scheduled reading of the If Hughes wrote about dreams deferred, he also coun- works of Langston Hughes. tered such foreboding with "I Dream a World," an exuber- Born James Meircer Langston Hughes in 1902, the ant poem with a message of hope much like the one con- poet counted among his ancestors John Mercer Langston, veyed by Barack Obama's presidential campaign. "I dream thought to be the first African American ever to hold public a world," Hughes wrote, "where all will know sweet freedom's office in the United States. John Mercer Langston began way.. .where black or white, whatever race you be, will share the his career as the first black lawyer in Ohio and was elected bounties of the earth and every man is free, where wretchedness Town Clerk of Brownhelm, Ohio, in 1855; he then served will hang its head andjoy, like a pearl, attends the needs of all on the city council of Oberlin, Ohio, from 1865 to 1867, and mankind. Ofsuch I dream, my world!" after a contested election, became the first African-Ameri-

can Congressman from Virginia. (Speaking of firsts, Lor- This event is co-produced by Community Works and the New Heritage Theatre raine Hansberry's play "A Raisin in the Sun," which took Group under the artistic direction of James Stovall. The Changing Poles and Engineering Labora- tory, U.S. Army Corps of In the late 1950s, the early 1930s, and the early 1880s, Engineers, in Hanover, scientists and explorers pooled their efforts to under- New Hampshire, and stand the Earth at its edges, the Arctic and Antarctic, the the former chair of the North and South Poles. Next month, the fourth and largest U.S. Committee to the such collaborative science program comes to a close, and the IPY; Michael Castellini,

American Museum of Natural History will acknowledge its Associate Dean of the accomplishments, hosting the third New York City Inter- University of Alaska, YORK CITY national Polar Weekend on February 7 and 8. This family- Fairbanks, Professor in NEW friendly event, to day, is to Fisheries INTERNATIONAL from noon 5 pm each designed the School of put the public in touch with the groundbreaking work of the and Ocean Science and International Polar Year (IPY). Director of the Universi-

IPY, in is an intense, ty's Institute POLAR The which began March 2007, of Marine internationally coordinated campaign of research and in- Science; Richard Alley, WEEKEND terdisciplinary collaboration among thousands of scientists Evan Pugh Professor of from more than 60 nations, dedicated to understanding Geosciences at Penn State University; Stephanie Pfirman, polar environments and the dramatic changes confronting Hirschorn Professor and Department Chair, Department them—one of the urgent issues addressed in the Museum's of Environmental Science, Barnard College; geologist current exhibition Climate Change: The Threat to Life and A Richard Glenn, President of the Barrow Arctic Science New Energy Future. Consortium; and Andrew Revkin, environmental reporter The weekend program will feature events and activities for the New York Times. for all ages, including performances, short talks. North- The weekend is sponsored by AMNH, Lamont-Doherty ern art, film clips, and a chance to meet a host of scien- Earth Observatory, Columbia University, Barnard College, tists in an interactive "Polar Fair." Two artists, Cornelia the Explorers Club, and Wings WorldQuest, with special Kavanaugh and Marcia Clark, will display their polar- participation from the Norwegian consulate and in partner- inspired art along with selected works from a group of Si- ship with Polar Palooza, a public education and outreach berian youth, courtesy of the Woods Hole Oceanographic project supported by the National Science Foundation and Institution in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. Among the NASA, bringing information and insights about the Poles scientific experts participating are Mary Albert, a me- to large public audiences across America through national chanical research engineer with Cold Regions Research science-center and museum tours.

SAVE THE DATE Small Fish, Big Ocean Tuesday, March 10 2009 Isaac Asimov Memorial Debate Every year, an amazing migration source through "sustainable" fishing From Planets to Plutoids: brings billions of sardines to the practices, the goal of which is nothing The New Solar System KwaZulu- Natal Coast of Africa, setting less than the preservation of a circle off a feeding frenzy among gannets, of life that developed and evolved over Pluto may be gone from the list of plan- seals, dolphins, whales, sharks, and millions of years—and has been under ets in our solar system, but it is not other fish. Wild Ocean, the exciting increasing threat since the early 20th forgotten. Last summer in Oslo, the In- film now showing in the Museum's century, when entire fish stocks began ternational Astronomical Union decided

LeFrak IMAX Theater, captures this collapsing one by one. As the film's to apply the name "plutoid" to all similar spectacle as only the giant screen can. trailer explains, "The sea is chang- dwarf planets. This is just one of the Viewers are invited to plunge into ing. Overfishing and global warming fascinating developments in astrophysics an epic struggle for survival under threaten what balance remains. There that inspire this year's debate. Moderated water, with voracious schools offish, are few places we can see the ocean as by Neil deCrasse Tyson, The Frederick and on land, with local fishermen it was, as it should be, as it could be." P. Rose Director of the Hayden Planetar- whose livelihood depends on the an- Wild Ocean takes you there. ium, this highly popular evening event nual sardine migration. It is a thrilling honors the memory of the late Isaac and hopeful story in which business, Wild Ocean was produced by the creators of the musi- Asimov, one of the most prolific and re- government, and the local people join cal STOMP and Academy Award-nominated directors vered science writers of the 20th century. forces to protect this invaluable food of the IIVIAX film Pulse: a STOMP Odyssey.

The contents ot these paces ape provided to Natural History by the American Museum of Natural Historv At the Museum www.amnh.org American Museum S Natural History ^

EXHIBITIONS Saturn: Imagesfrom the Community Works and the New FIELD TRIPS AND Heritage Theatre Group under the Climate Change: The Threat to Cassini-Huygens Mission WORKSHOPS artistic direction of James Stovall. Life and A New Energy Future Through March 2^, 20og Visualizing Climate Change Global Weekends are supported by Through August 16, loog Explore details of Saturn's Three Thursdays, the May and Samuel Rudin Family

This timely exhibition rings, moons, and atmosphere Foundation, Inc., the Tolan family, and February 39, 2g, and March 5, the family of Frederick H. Leonhardt. explores the science, history, w/ith images sent over half a 6:^0-8:^0 pm

and impact of climate change billion miles by the Cassini Join Ned Gardiner, on a global scale, providing spacecraft. LECTURES Visualization Program

a context for today's most The support of the National Aeronautics GLOBAL KITCHEN Manager for the National urgent headlines and and Space Administration is appreciated. climate Change and Coffee Oceanic and Atmospheric empowering and inspiring Special thanks to the Cassini imaging Tuesday, February^, 6:^0 pm Administration (NCAA); and team, especially those scientists at visitors of all ages. Todd Carmichael, La Colombe Linda Sohl, Center for Climate Cornell University's Department of climate Change is organized by the Astronomy, along with the staff of Torrefaction, and Danner Systems, Columbia University, American Museum of Natural Cornell University photography. The Friedman, Rainforest Alliance, to learn techniques for History, New York (www.amnh.org), Eastman Kodak Company of Rochester, understanding Earth's climate. in collaboration with the Abu Dhabi New York, printed the images. discuss growing coffee amid Authority for Culture &. Heritage, United the realities of climate change. Arab Emirates; The Cleveland Museum On Feathered Wings FAMILY AND CHILDREN'S of Natural History; The Field Museum, Chicago; Through May 25, 20og PROGRAMS Instituto Sangari, Sao Paulo, Brazil; Admire the work of renowned Meet the Scientist junta de Castilla y Le6n, Spain; Korea Green Foundation, Seoul; wildlife photographers Sunday, February 1

Natural History Museum of Denmark, whose artistry showcases the Visitors 5 and older can chat Copenhagen; Papalote Museo del Nino, majesty of birds in flight. with scientists and learn how Mexico City, Mexico; and Saint Louis Science Center. The presentation of both Saturn and they became interested in On Feathered Wings at the American their fields. Call Climate Change is proudly presented by 212-313-7105 Museum of Natural History is made Bank of America. possible by the generosity of the Arthur for details.

Ross Foundation. Discovery possible Additional support has been provided by The Room was made by a grant from the Edward John Noble The Rockefeller Foundation. Public programs are made possible, in Foundation. Additional support for Climate part, by the Rita and Frits Markus Fund The Discovery Room's programs are Change and its related educational for Public Understanding of Science. supported, in part, by Con Edison and by programming has been provided by the New York City Council. Mary and David Solomon, the Betsy and Jesse Fink Foundation, GLOBAL WEEKENDS the Linden Trust for Conservation, and the Red Crane Foundation. International Polar Weekend Coffee cherries picked in Wild, Wild World: Wolves Saturday-SundaY, Colombia on a Rainforest Alliance Saturday, February 14, The Butterfly Conservatory February y-S, 12-^ pm Certified farm 12-1 pm and 2-^ pm

Through May 25, zoog AM NH hosts the third Learn about these highly

Mingle with up to 500 live, International Polar Weekend SCIENCE AND SOCIETY endangered predators with free-flying tropical butterflies Visit www.amnh.org/polar. Reporting on Climate Atka, an Arctic gray wolf from

in an enclosed habitat that In collaboration with Barnard College, Change: The Media and the Wolf Conservation Center Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, approximates their natural Public Understanding in South Salem, New York. Columbia University, and Polar-Palooza, environment. with funding from NSF. Tuesday, February 10, 6:^0 pm journalists > With Bud Ward, The AFTER SCHOOL Yale I African-American Forum on Climate Change PROGRAMS Heritage Day &.the Media; Bill Blakemore, Courses in the Sciences, Harlem Serenade: ABC News; Diane Hawkins- Session IV

A Moment in Time Cox, CNN; and Andrew February 2]-April 3,

Saturday, February 21, i-^pm Revkin, The New York Times; /l.:^o-6'jo pm Celebrate African-American along with Matthew Nisbet, Students interested in Heritage Month and Harlem's American University School of science can choose from a rich musical legacy. Visit Communication, and Michael diverse range of topics. Visit www.amnh.org/blackhistory. Novacek, Senior VP and www.amnh.org/education/

This event is co-produced with Provost of Science, AMNH. highschool. (High school students, grades 9-12) Behind the Scenes in construction of the Cathedral Cosmic Collisions

Support for the After-School Programs Mammalogy Church of St. John the Divine. Journey into deep space is provided by the Thursday, February ^, 6:]0 pm, to explore the hypersonic Goldman Sachs Foundation. y pm, and j:}0 pm FAMILY PROGRAMS impacts that drive the AMNH ADVENTURES: Visit the Museum's storage Mineral Collecting Workshop formation of our universe. WINTER CAMPS tanks and Osteological Prep Sunday, February 22, Narrated by Robert Redford. Monday-Friday, February Lab with Collections IVIanager 10 am-12 pm and 1-^ pm Cosmic Collisions was developed in 16-20, 9 am-4pm Darrin Lunde and Collections Learn to identify minerals collaboration with the Denver Museum of Natures. Science: GOTO, Inc., Tokyo, Each session includes hands- Specialist Neil Duncan. with Senior Scientific )apan; and the Shanghai Science and on investigations and behind- Assistant Jamie Newman. Technology Museum. tours. For further the-scenes Behind the Scenes in Cost includes a mini- Made possible through the generous information, please call The Sackler Institute for collection of minerals. (For support of CIT. 212-769-5100. Comparative Genomics adults and children 8 and up) Cosmic Collisions was created by the Thursday, February 26, American Museum of Natural History with the major support and partnership Destination Space: 6:^0 pm, J pm, and y:jopm HAYDEN PLANETARIUM of the National Aeronautics and Space Astrophysics With George Amato, Director PROGRAMS Administration's Science Mission (For 2nd and 3rd graders) of the SICG; Susan Perkins, TUESDAYS IN THE DOME Directorate, Heliophysics Division. Assistant Curator; and Celestial Highlights

Fossils and DNA Julie Feinstein, Collections Star Nests of Orion IMAX MOVIES (For 4th and 5th graders) Manager. Tuesday, February 24, 6:}opm Wild Ocean

These programs are supported, in part, Experience the annual by Val and Min-Myn Schaffner. Mission Earth: WALKING TOURS feeding frenzy off South Our Changing Planet Rocks of Ages Africa as billions offish

(For 6th and 7th graders) Saturday, February 7, 10 am- LECTURES migrate up the KwaZulu- 12 pm and 1-} pm Touching the Heart Natal Wild Coast. MEMBERS' PROGRAMS Join geologist Sidney of Magnetism in our BEHIND-THE-SCENES Horenstein on this walking Nearest Star LATE NIGHT

TOURS tour to learn about the Monday. February 19, ji^o pm DANCE PARTY Explore the origin of the sun's One Step Beyond INFORMATION evolving magnetism with Juri Friday, February 33 Toomre, JILA, University of Visit www.amnh.org/ Call 212-769-5100 or visit www.amnh.org. Colorado at Boulder. onestepbeyond. TICKETS AND REGISTRATION Call 212-769-5200, Monday-Friday, 9 am-5 pm, or visit

www.amnh.org. A service charge may apply. All programs are subject to change. WILD WORLD AMNH eNotes delivers the latest information on luseum Zoology meets programs via Visit and events monthly email. geography in this www.amnh.org to sign up today! clever, six-inch- diameter globe on which colorful

images place 115 < Become a Member of the different animals American Museum of Natural History in their native habitats. adding to You'll enjoy many valuable benefits, including unlimited free the fun, electro- magnetism causes the general admission, discounts on programs and in shops, globe to float, as if subscriptions to Natural History magazine and Rotunda, by magic, in midair. our Members' newsletter, and much more! PRICE: $75.00 MEMBERS: $67.50 For further information, call 212-769-5606

or visit www.amnh.org/join. www.amnhshop.com or 1-800-671-7035

The CONTENTS OF THESE PACES ARE PROVIDED TO NATURAL HiSTORY BY THE AMERICAN MuSEUM OF NATURAL HiSTORV. ENDPAPER 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 15 17 18 19 20 1 21 1 22 Birthday Game 23 1 24 25 26 27 28 ^^^^29 By Brendan Emmett Quigley 30 31 ^^^^^^32 33 34 ACROSS ^^^1 35 _ -' 38 39 ^^^^40 41 42 43 1 Neutral pH 6 Intomercial knife w ^^^^^4

11 Asa , Ameritan botanist, friend and defender of 71 -Across 48 49 50 " 53 15 Basilica area M" 19 What to sing while skipping 54 ^^^^H55 " " 68 59 20 1988 medicine Nobelist Gertrude 21 Mathematical crescent 60 61 62 63 " 22 Good buy 65 66 " 68 69 I 23 "I'm a- to go!" m 24 Start of a quotation by 71 -Across I 70 72 73 27 Quotation, part 2 wT 29 American pie pome 74 75 76 " " ^^^H79 30 Standard equipment in most mammals 80 ^^^^^^^81 84 31 Giant Mel at Cooperstown M' M" 32 The 0/ Man (1871 work by 85 85 87 88 89 90 71 -Across) 9^^^^^^95 96 35 Mule's dad 91 ^^^^92 " 36 Altar of the stars ^^^^^^^9/ 98 99 100 101 37 Slip : lose one's judgment ^^H 40 Short solo 102 103 104 ^^^^105 106 107 108 109 44 Quotation, part 3

48 insects (bees, ants, etc.) 110 111 112 113 51 "Good for life" sloganeer 52 With 57-Across, ship that carried 114 115 116 117 71-Across 53 Chimp's genus 113 119 120 121 54 "Are you out?" 1 1 1 55 U.S. Forest Service's superior 56 Typical Harvest Moon mo. 105 Quotation, part 5 26 Indian royalty 82 Arts deg. 57 See 52-Across 110 End of the quotation 28 Home of golf's Blue Monster 83 Gaiety 60 Quotation, part 4 113 The Very Hungry Caterpillar 33 They may be watching (abbr.) 84 Mouse reaction

64 Song of praise author Eric 34 "Able was I, I saw Elba." 86 Canadian capitalist 65 Alexander von Humboldt's 114 99 Luftballons pop singer 36 Comparison words 87 Moisten again native soil 115 Combined, in Compiegne 37 Carne 88 Displaced persons grp. 116 " shoe fits ..." 38 Southern Plains tribe (1946-1952) 117 " said many times..." 39 They may be chanted -rent (proposed foreclosure 118 Secluded valley 41 Many a sitcom rating remedy) 119 Ostrich cousin that inspired 42 Marsh duck 90 Didn't work too hard

71-Across 43 Queen 's lace 94 Medicated shampoo brand 120 Thoreau's Faith in 44 Odor block in plumbing 95 Adapt as a species 121 Hawaiian geese 45 Like good gossip columns 96 Bank's ad come-on 46 Prayer pronoun 98 Secure anew DOWN 47 Little devil 99 Kitty (mistress in Irish 1 Geologic layers 48 Sis or bro history) 66 Pigeon English? 2 Removes 49 NASA force unit 100 Habitat cut out for a species

67 Shuffle, in genetics or math 3 ABC TV's 20/20 newswoman 50 Dove's house 101 Genetic enzyme 70 Assistant Elizabeth 55 Alternative Reader 102 Astronaut's beverage 71 Naturalist born 200 years ago 4 M;dc//emarc/7 novelist 56 Losing draw in straws 103 Law-school newbie 74 attention: Look sharp! 5 -technology (small- 57 American polar explorer 104 Heredity unit 77 Future fish scale materials science) 58 71-Across's wife and first cousin 106 Solo 78 Afternoon socials 6 Turn bronze Wedgwood 107 Close companions (slangy abbr) 79 Top-drawer 7 Admission of defeat 59 Frogs and toads 108 After midnight, say 80 Island home of tailless cats 8 Victory goddess 61 What cars do with carbon dioxide 109 Words of confidence 81 Our close relative, according to 9 Yves's eve 62 Ha/r co-writer James 111 1921 play about robots 71-Across 10 Sin City higher-learning 63 Toast starter 112 Durham sch. 82 Finches' variable appendage institution 64 Oil giant 83 Genetics pioneer Gregor 11 Yvette's iced 67 Alice in Wonder/and illustrator Solution oil page 42 85 1859 masterwork by 71-Across 12 Lord of the Rings \eiiers Mervyn 91 recognition (perception of 13 Hydrocarbon ending 68 Lacking depth Brendan Emmett Quigley, arrangement) 14 "So's old man!" 69 One, toWilhelm a regular contributor of crossworch 92 Light bulb power unit 15 Ex-orphan 71 Filmmaker Joel or Ethan to tlie New York Times, lias 93 1970s sitcom planet 16 Cop's target 72 Took off 71 " di foiirpiizsle Jortlicoinitig. He 94 Pound note bearing -Across's 17 "Engine" on 52-Across 73 Blu Dipinto Blu" ( Volare) books dispatcher (abbr.) image 18 Other than this 74 E-mail lives ill Brookline, Massachusetts, 97 Golf club with a long vertical face 25 Phillies reliever Brad 75 Okinawa capital ami performs in the 100 Hist. 76 On a trapeze without Boston Typewriter 101 Evo- (modern biological field) 77 Alma mater of some engrs. 102 Garb in Roman fora 81 Lambs: Latin Orchestra.

48 NATURAL HISTORY February 2009 NEW!

Note card boxed assortment—Shells from the golden age

We've meticulously adapted five stunning shell images to our newest note

card assortment. The images, regarded as some of the most sumptuously

detailed illustrations of shells from the Golden Age of natural history

illustration, are taken from the hand-colored engravings of Bern's Testacea

Musei Caesarei Vindobonensis , 1780.

Gift Box of 20 note cards, four each of five designs, $19.95.

Available at www.sdnhm.org/store or in the

Alex and Elizabeth Wise Museum Store, 619.255.0239.

Wholesale also available, 619.255.0238.

tSan Diego Natural History Museum As one of the last unspoiled places on earth, you'll feel afrinti mate and authentic connection toatreasury of life-changingexperiencesin Belize. Beone with exotic birds, the Hemisphere's largest barrier reef and the warm people of this Caribbean gateway to the mystical Maya BELa^ world. And just a two-hour flight from the U.S., Belize is the only English-speaking country MOTHER NATURE'S ?• BEST KEPT SECRET in Central America. JUst be, in Belize. Call 800-624-0686 or visit TravelBelize.org. .jji^