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lime • Fish tha 10/04 V / / / X Come Fly $3.95 USA $4.95 CANADA 1 0> WITH Me! 246846 4 M*"-^- ^'.'.'L-^ -m We're not just breaking new ground W I ! I I ^J U I V W III W I \^ W Toyota's eight U.S. manufacturing plants are setting the standards for building quality into every vehicle we produce. Today, eight Toyota models are manufactured in the U.S. and last year alone we built more than a million vehicles here.* Since we first began doing business in America, Toyota has been committed to reinvesting into the local economy. Through manufacturing, sales and marketing, research and design facilities, as well as our purchasing from local suppliers, we're creating jobs and opportunities in communities across America. And with new plants under construction in San Antonio, Texas and Jackson, Tennessee, we'll continue to break new ground every day. "Toyota components and vehicles are made using many U.S. sourced parts. ^§'2004 toyota.com/usa TOYOTA ALAPAGOS CXpGiriGIICG IVIdttGirSa And so does commitment. I first visited Galapagos with my fattier in 1967, when he opened up the possibility of exploring the islands by ship. I still remember that voyage moment by moment. I was struck above all with the wildlife's total lack of fear as my daughter (below) discovered too in her first encounter with marine iguanas. Galapagos is a very special place and I believe that if you, the traveler, have a great experience there, your passion will play a big role in securing the future well-being of these islands. In so many ways, large and small, our longstanding "in the spirit of great curiosity, I approached Galapagos on our historic cruise in July commitment will ensure that you have a great experience. 1967. And, together, we will strive to make sure that the next No passenger could take our trip without gaining vastly generation may experience the expanded scientific knowledge.' joy and wonder of Galapagos. Lars-Eric LIndblad — Passport to Anywhere Sven/Olof Lindblad 1-800-EXPEDITION expeditions.com/ga OCTOBER 2004 VOLUME 113 NUMBER 8 FEATURES COVER STORY 40 WHEREVER THE WIND MAY BLOW Albatrosses andfrigatebirds spend most of their long lives soaring over the sea. Miniature electronic trackers and sensors are now showing ornithologists ivhere the birds go. HENRI WEIMERSKIRCH CAMPAIGN 46 ISSUES AND ANSWERS: BUSH V. KERRY From energy, the environment, and the state of natural . resources, to health, space, and education, the two major-party candidates respond to our questions. 52 DISPATCHES FROM THE FERN FRONTIER Plants with an ancient pedigree are yielding their family secrets to molecular approaches. ROBBIN C. MORAN ON THE cover: Great frigatebird (Fregata iiiiiwr) fully inflates its throat pouch during a courtship display. DEPARTMENTS 6 THE NATURAL MOMENT The Inhuman Stain Photograph b]' Norbert Wu 8 UP FRONT Editor's Notebook 10 CONTRIBUTORS -12 LETTERS 14 SAMPLINGS Ne\^"s from Nature 28 UNIVERSE Ringside Seat Neil deGrasse Tyson 33 NATURALISTS AT LARGE Climb Ever)- Waterfalll 58 LAND Peter T. Sherman and THIS Faces of Texas Perri K. Eason Two Roben H. Mohlenbrock 38 BIOMECHANICS Slime and the Cytoskeleton REVIEW Adam Simjmers It or Bit? Brian Hayes BOOKSHELF Laurence A. Marschall 71 nature.net Mother Tongue Robert Anderson 72 OUT THERE Shado\^y Partner Charles Liu 74 THE SKY IN OCTOBER Joe Rao 76 AT THE MUSEUM 80 ENDPAPER Fishmg for a Li\ing Deborah Stone PICTURE CREDITS: Page 10 Visit our Web site at www.naturalhistorymag.com NEW A different kind of iiome theater system. The excitement of home theater. The simplicity of fewer speal<ers and wires. 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To order directly, or for Bose stores and dealers near you, call 1-888-321 -BOSE, ext. U80 Better sound through research® 321 .bose.com/wu80 Cotporation. ©20O4 Bose Corporation. Patent rights ssued and/or pending. The 3«2«1 medo center design is also a trademai1( of Bose CCM-000370 Wm^^3 HI 4 n ^ '^-il^l ^^J —— FHE NATURAL MOMENT UP FRONT See preceding two pages Our Crowded Niche Niche, from the Latin word for "nest." means much the same thing in biologN' as it does in ordinan,' speech. Your niche is your comfort zone, a farmHar place where you can make a decent li\dng. Some creatures find their niche through heroic Unlike the smear of goo the exertions, Hke the fish in Peter T. Sherman and Perri K. Eason's story land snail leaves in its wake, of Hawaiian gobies that reach safety in freshwater pools by scahng a swath of purple lesions marks sheer, thousand-foot cUtEs ("CHmb Ever)' Waterfall!" page 33). the passage of the flamingo tongue Some, like the albatrosses and frigatebirds in Henri Weimerskirch s snail (Cyphoma gihbosumj, as it article, "Wherever the Wind May Blow" (page 40), spend most of munches its vA'ay across a Gorgonia their days soaring over remote oceans, wandering freely across vast veiitaliiia sea fan. The carnivorous ranges that others can only dream of. snail—less than an inch long masks its plain white shell with a fleshy, leopard-spotted mantle When you read a magazine, you also tend to share a niche. As a while grazing. Soft corals such as reader of Xatiiral History, you probably have more than the av- the sea fan are both its feeding erage person's curiosit)' about the emaronment, natural resources, health, education, and other issues, such as en- ground and its food. biodiversity, science — Acting in self-defense, the G. erg\' and space, with roots in the natural world. Those issues "our" veutalina pictured here responded topics—are also important matters of national debate. Come election to the flamingo tongue's attack by season, our niche seems to attract lots ot outsiders. making a cocktail of protective My colleague Man,' Knight took on the job of asking the two compounds. The chemicals mrned major-part\' presidential candidates about those issues. Her first task the sea fan bright violet, and was to help draft our questions, but her real challenge was to get the helped fend off a number ot fiingi campaigns to respond. A spokesperson for President Bush's campaign and bacteria. But according to suggested she look for the answers online. A spokesperson for Senator Jessica Ward, a marine scientist at Kerr)''s campaign said they were "working on" the answers—then Cornell University' in Ithaca. New told Knight the questions had gone to the \\Tong official. York, the holes and black decay As our deadhne approached, we decided that the only way to move in the center suggest that a fiingus, forward was to take the advice of the Bush forces and cull answers possibly Aspergillus sydowii, might fi-om the recent speeches and campaign statements of each candidate. have broken through the coral's We then sent both sets of our proposed answers, along with our barriers. sources, to both campaigns—making it clear to each that we were A. sydowii W2S once stricdy ter- sending the same materials to the other side. We again urged each restrial, but since the late 1990s the campaign to respond to our questions direcdy or to revise the answers organism has becoine epidemic at we had assembled. If nothing was changed, we noted, the rephes we many underwater sites in the were suggesting would stand. Caribbean. Flamingo tongues In the end, the Kerr^' campaign did prepare responses to our ques- not thought to be lethal by them- tions. Officials with the Bush campaign twice considered our re- selves—have been tound to carrs' quest, then decided not to respond—hence letting stand what we A. sydowii in their gut and, as had already sent them. The questions and answers begin on page 46. Ward speculates, may be responsi- ble tor spreading the disease. Photographer Norberr Wu am sorrs- to report that, after this issue, Ehzabeth Merv-man \vi\i found this ghouhsh-looking pair I be lea\'mg her position as art director o[ NntiimJ History In her (or trio, it you count the fungus) two years wth us, Liz has made extraordinar\- contributions to this off the coast of the Caribbean is- magazine. Happily, in her new role as a fine-arts consultant, she wiQ land of Saba. still be helping us find just the right images for our pages. But every —Erin Espelie mornins at the office, she wiH be missed. —Peter Brown 8 NATURAL HISTORY :c^'er2004 Teles^»V«Wild Bird v?<»t»««ia.; • INSTRUMENT BOGEN BORG BUSHNELL CANON CELESTRON CORONADO CYANOGEN DESERT STORM COVERS DISCOVERY DOBS FLI FUJINON JMI KENDRICK Observe Earth's nearest star ..